Rumor: Avowed Has Moved Engines to Unreal 5.3

Jez Corden has shared an interesting new rumor about Obsidian’s upcoming action RPG, Avowed.

The editor for Windows Central and co-host of the Xbox Two podcast shared this statement on Twitter:

“Was it already known Avowed had moved to Unreal Engine 5.3 with support from Xbox tech / The Coalition? (Cuz it has.)”

Avowed was already looking to be in very good shape when Microsoft showed it in the Xbox Developer Direct from the start of the year. Obsidian seems to have dipped into what they built with the Pillars of Eternity franchise, and what they had learned making 3D games to expand that universe with a twitch action RPG.

And then, Microsoft revealed that what they had prepared to show the public was an earlier build of the title, and that many of the things fans had asked for where added or modified in the game in progress. If some fans were mixed about the visual quality of this preview, the final product could look better.

And if Jez’s rumor is accurate, than it could be considerably better looking than that, which was honestly already looking pretty good. As you may already know, The Coalition team does such specialist work with Unreal Engine that they have been given special access to early versions of the engine. Now, they do share their knowledge with the Unreal community, so this was not something exclusive to Xbox game studios.

But, The Coalition does help their fellow Xbox studios directly in improving the graphics and performance in their own games. As Jez also revealed, Microsoft already went ahead and spun off Kate Rayner, who was technical director at The Coalition. Kate has been given her own studio, and her job is now to work directly with those other studios.

Jez’s source has likely already told him which projects have already benefited from Kate and The Coalition providing technical support. He’s just sharing which these projects are as they become relevant. There hasn’t been a recent trailer or reveal for Avowed, but Jez may be talking about it now as it may be appearing in next month’s Xbox Games Showcase.

Avowed is scheduled for release on Xbox Series X|S and Windows in the second half of 2024. That includes June itself, so the wait for this title shouldn’t be taking that much longer anymore. That Jez has been talking about this title seems to be a signal that it’s close to release soon. But, if you are looking forward to other upcoming Microsoft games, you’ll want to keep an eye out on which games are brought up in the next few days, in the lead up to Xbox Games Showcase.