Avowed devs address key multiplayer co-op feature removal

Avowed is finally on its way, but it won’t have multiplayer, despite it being a highlighted feature during the game’s early development.

It’s no secret that multiplayer games are the current trend in modern video games. Whether it’s the new Black Ops 6, Baldur’s Gate 3, Helldivers 2, or even Warhammer Space Marine 2, we’ve seen tons of incredibly successful multiplayer adventures released over the last few years.

So, with Obsidians highly anticipated Avowed finally getting a release date, one feature has been revealed to be missing; Multiplayer. Thankfully, the developers have spoken out and explained their decision.

Why is Avowed not multiplayer?

During Obsidian’s 20th Anniversary documentary, the developers explained why they chose to remove the feature and make it a solely single-player venture.

“It was a more interesting game to publishers” explained the devs during the documentary, adding that promising “multiplayer made it interesting” towards the people investing.

However, as they went on, they found they “were too focused on Co-op and we were too focused on changing the way our pipelines work and the way that we write conversations and the way we do quests and everything else,” forcing some drastic change.

Clip starts at 18:30

“After working on it for a little bit we realized that we weren’t focused on the things that we’re best at and so we did make a pivot on the game to refocus and make sure that it was at the end of the day an Obsidian game” explained the developers.

The choice to make a purely single-player game and slide away from the previously promised multiplayer is undeniably a good one. As the devs mentioned, it gives them the chance to focus on what they’re good at, which is touching stories, somewhat ridiculous adventures, and unforgettable games like Pillars of Eternity.

So, while the game won’t have a multiplayer option, you may be wondering whether you can romance your companions, unlike Outer Worlds which focuses on companion relationships with NPCs rather than the player. Well, we’ve got the answer in our guide.