August 2: It's official, Avowed has been delayed to Feb 18, 2025. It was previously expected to release sometime this year. Microsoft says it's making the move to "give players' backlogs some breathing room."
So many games coming! As such, we're moving Avowed to Feb 18, 2025 to give players’ backlogs some breathing room.Stay tuned for more from our games across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda & Xbox Game Studios at gamescom, including our Aug 23 livestream for a look at Avowed:… pic.twitter.com/3RnyVwlHRa
The Verge cites STALKER 2's delay into November as a potential motivating factor for the Avowed delay. Despite GSC Game World not being owned by Microsoft, STALKER 2 will be an Xbox (and PC) exclusive coming to Game Pass day one—. Also coming this fall from Microsoft: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, and Diablo 4's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred.
The move makes more sense when you consider how much Microsoft has bet the farm on Game Pass, with the publisher removing pressure from an already crowded fall and instead giving subscribers something to look forward to in the doldrums of January and February. Also worth considering is the planned November [[link]] release of , which got its big reveal as part of Microsoft's summer showcase. While
the dynamics at play are very different from last year's Starfield vs. Baldur's Gate 3 matchup, avoiding another such stark RPG head-to-head may have also been on decision-makers' minds.
Avowed has been cooking for a long time, with an initial pre-rendered announcement trailer in 2020. The first-person spinoff to Pillars of Eternity looks like it could be something special, with its vibrant fantasy environments expertly evoking the Pillars games' pre-rendered worlds. It was, however, recently revealed that Obsidian , making it "more juicy" in response to criticisms of its initial reveal.