The artistic design lead and lead author of 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas has returned to the studio that made it. John Gonzalez introduced he’s rejoined Obsidian Leisure as artistic director, simply because the Xbox studio prepares for its largest yr but with the launch of fantasy RPG Avowed and New Vegas religious spin-off The Outer Worlds 2.
“Again to Obsidian for thrilling instances! (No, it’s not FNV2.)!” he wrote in his up to date LinkedIn profile this week. Gonzalez was beforehand on the Barcelona-based NetEase startup Incredible Pixel Citadel engaged on an MMO codenamed Ghost. “Really a privilege to work with this extremely sort and proficient group. However a brand new alternative arose that I straight-up couldn’t resist,” reads an outline of his time on the studio.
Gonzalez’s contributions to Fallout: New Vegas, whose open-world RPG storytelling and quest design stay a sequence high-water mark for a lot of followers, make his return to the Xbox studio notable. He spent many of the final decade at PlayStation first-party studio Guerrilla Video games the place he spent tons of of hours crafting the Horizon Zero Daybreak universe, which equally left an enduring impression on gamers with its sci-fi mysteries and Twilight Zone-like twists.
Obsidian has been considered one of Microsoft’s most prolific studios because it was acquired again in 2018. The Outer Worlds launched the next yr, an RPG shooter which exchanged Fallout’s grim wasteland for a satirical sci-fi setting in far-off company house colonies. It’s since been adopted by survival sim Grounded and the Renaissance detective RPG Pentiment, with Avowed arriving subsequent month and The Outer Worlds 2 anticipated by the top of the yr. The studio has additionally been serving to the State of Decay 3 group with its open world tech. That’s loads!
Whereas Gonzalez was fast to silence fan hypothesis that he is perhaps engaged on a long-requested Fallout: New Vegas sequel, which wouldn’t have been utterly stunning contemplating what transpired within the first season of the Fallout TV present, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see what he does find yourself engaged on at Obsidian. Will it’s the group’s subsequent huge RPG franchise, or a very totally different style mash-up that explores new territory for the studio? I’ll be proud of no matter it is perhaps, so long as it arrives someday this decade.
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