Avowed is the latest Xbox Game Studios creation to head to PlayStation, developer Obsidian announced today.
This news came as part of an interview on the New Game+ Showcase, where Obsidian developers shared that the February 17 launch on PS5 would coincide with the game’s promised anniversary update on all platforms.
The anniversary update contains a number of long-requested features, including a New Game Plus mode, a Photo Mode, the ability to play three new races (Aumaua, Orlan, and Dwarves), a new weapon type, the ability to change appearance in the overworld, and a number of other asked-for upgrades.
Pre-orders for the PS5 version will go live today, and the update will be available for free for those who already own it on other platforms.
Avowed came out almost a year ago (hence the anniversary update), and we gave it a 7/10 at the time. While we said it has “awesome worldbuilding and stellar character writing”, it also “plays it quite safe with a by-the-numbers fantasy adventure.”
Avowed’s move to PlayStation is part of a larger trend of Xbox releasing its first-party games on its competitor platform, including recently Forza Horizon 5, Doom: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and even Halo.. It’s a strategy that seems to be working for them okay in some respects – in one quarter of last year, six of the ten best-selling games on PlayStation were Xbox-published. And its leadership has publicly embraced the idea that consumers find platform exclusivity to be “antiquated.”
Will this strategy serve them well as hardware prices skyrocket and players gravitate more toward forever games? We took a stab at guessing how Xbox’s 2026 will go, and you can read those predictions here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
