Summary
Carrie Patel, the director of Obsidian Entertainment’sAvowed, has left the Xbox studio only a few months after the game’s release. Set in Obsidian’sPillars of Eternityuniverse,Avowedwas the studio’s first crack at a major AAA fantasy RPG. While it turned out to be much smaller and more focused in scope and scale than something like Bethesda’sThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim,Avowedstill impressed gamers with its strong writing, buttery-smooth first-person combat, and beautiful environments, earning the game an 81 on Metacritic.
Over her impressive 12-year career at celebrated RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment, Carrie Patel has mainly worked onPillars of Eternity,The Outer Worlds, and most recentlyAvowed. Patel got her start at the studio as a narrative designer onPillars of Eternityand its two White March DLCs before continuing her narrative work on the game’s sequel,Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. After working on the base game, it wasThe Outer Worlds' Peril on Gorgon DLCwhere Patel got her first opportunity as a game director, leading to her director role onAvowed.
It seems that after having shipped her first full game as a director at Obsidian, Carrie Patel has left the studio.As can be seen on her LinkedIn page, her current role is Game Director at Night School Studio, one of the indie teams Netflix picked up to help support its Netflix Gaming effort. Before its acquisition by Netflix, Night School had mostly been known for its2016 indie darlingOxenfree, and has since gone on to release lesser-known games likeAfterpartyandNext Stop Nowhere.
Avowed Director Carrie Patel Has Left Obsidian for Netflix’s Night School Studio
Strong storytelling is one of Night School Studio’s defining characteristics, as both itsOxenfreegames andAfterpartyhave been praised for their compelling characters and writing. As such, it’s easy to see why Carrie Patel decided on Night School Studio for this next chapter of her career. None of Night School’s games are RPGs, so it’ll be interesting to see whether Patel’s involvement in the studio’s future games will see more RPG-like gameplay elements, as Night School has primarily been a narrative adventure game studio.
Patel’s departure from Obsidian could indicate thatAvowedDLC may not be coming after all. However, seeing that Obsidian has a history of changing directors for DLCs as they did withThe Outer Worlds' expansions, hope forAvowed’s immediate future may not be lost. With that said, a full-onAvowedsequel will be tougher to imagine with Patel no longer at the studio, despiteObsidian’s seemingly positive attitudetowardAvowed’s critical and commercial success.
For now, Obsidian has a second major RPG due to release before the end of 2025 in itsOuter Worldssequel. Plenty of info and gameplay footage has already been released by Obsidian, and it’ll be the star ofXbox’s upcoming June showcase, as theOuter Worlds 2Direct is set to immediately follow the Xbox livestream on June 8. As for Carrie Patel and Night School, the studio just released aBlack Mirrormobile game namedThrongletslast month, but little is known about the team’s next project, of which Patel is likely to now be a part of.
