Avowed has been public knowledge for about two years now, and so far, it has proven surprisingly airtight. Many games that spend that long in development face lots of significant leaks, but Obsidian Entertainment has mostly managed to avoid major leaks, aside from a few rumored gameplay details near the game's announcement and a possible but dubious release date dropped by Nvidia GeForce Now. That said, Windows Central senior editor and known Microsoft leaker Jez Corden may have provided Avowed fans with a significant leak a little while ago. According to Corden, guns may be a central weapon type in Obsidian's next RPG.
Corden claims to have seen some of Avowed's pre-alpha gameplay last year, and in the process, he supposedly identified muskets as one of the core weapon categories. Obsidian Entertainment has yet to confirm any broad strokes of Avowed's gameplay, let alone whether there are guns in Avowed or not, but Corden's reputation makes the leak seem plausible. If Avowed really does stock some early firearms, then it might land in a great sweet spot as a fantasy RPG. Avowed's setting, themes, and gameplay may give it a unique position between The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Fallout that allow it to compete with Obsidian's new Xbox Game Studios sibling, Bethesda.
Balancing Skyrim and Fallout
Skyrim -- and more generally The Elder Scrolls -- acts as an obvious competitor for Avowed. Skyrim remains extremely popular more than ten years after its release, so Avowed needs to pull attention away from that title while anticipating The Elder Scrolls 6's eventual release and offering features that TES6 likely won't. Guns are one good way for Obsidian to kill two birds with one stone. The Elder Scrolls is highly medieval, merely offering bows as ranged martial weapons, so guns would open the door to an entirely new class of ranged combat in Avowed while modernizing the setting slightly.
At the same time, the rest of Avowed makes the game well-suited to compete with Fallout. Naturally, if Avowed does have muskets, Fallout's list of guns will inevitably be far more robust thanks to its more contemporary setting, but Avowed's magic and fantasy lore will offer a lot that Fallout simply can't. As good as Fallout gunplay is, Avowed has rich Pillars of Eternity lore to work with, ranging from a variety of magic systems to a number of unique gods. Magic elements standing alongside early firearms will make Avowed a totally different experience from Fallout.
Avowed as a Renaissance RPG
As mentioned above, the rumor of guns in Avowed is particularly exciting because of the implications for the game's setting. Pillars of Eternity already features some firearms, but if Avowed intends to expand on the world's guns, then players might find themselves watching Eora undergo major scientific breakthroughs as other kinds of technology develop. The Fable franchise may have received some criticism for abandoning its fantasy roots for a more industrial world, but Avowed's position as a new story in Eora makes it a good opportunity for Obsidian to focus on a more Renaissance-style world that's quickly changing through the power of science.
A healthy balance of technology and sorcery could be the key to making Avowed stand out among competitors like Skyrim and Fallout. Few AAA RPGs aim to strike a balance in this department, usually opting to focus wholesale on fantasy, sci-fi, or modern technology. Blurring the lines a little could be great for Avowed's image. Hopefully Obsidian Entertainment really does plan to expand the groundwork that it already laid down in Pillars of Eternity, using guns as one part of a larger world that's focused on innovation and discovery. At the very least, guns in Avowed seem plausible thanks to Pillars of Eternity, and such a weapon class would already make the game a solid middle ground between other big RPGs.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.