Obsidian Entertainment is one of the most accomplished video game developers working in the industry right now, but despite working on some of the biggest licenses of the last 20 years, the studio has a fairly modest following. Founded in 2003, Obsidian was thrown into the deep end, with its first title being Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, the follow-up to one of the most beloved games of all time. This was the beginning of a 10-year pattern for the developer, who continued to work on sequels to beloved properties, such as Neverwinter Nights 2, Dungeon Siege 3, and of course, Fallout: New Vegas. But over the last few years, Obsidian has started experimenting with its own games, and Pentiment is the studio's most recent offering.
Set in 16th century Bavaria, Pentiment puts players in the role of a journeyman artist tasked with investigating a murder that their friend has been accused of. Featuring a striking art style based on medieval manuscripts and paintings, deep RPG mechanics, and an apparently complex, 25-year spanning story, Pentiment may just be Obsidian's boldest game yet, but its release date is a bit of an unfortunate one.
Pentiment Has a Lot of Release Day Competition
Announced just a few weeks ago, Pentiment will be releasing on November 15. While November is often one of the busier times of the year for game releases, with most publishers wanting to get their games out in time for the Holiday rush, this year's release calendar is unprecedentedly busy. For reference, while November 2021 saw a lot of games release, only a handful were big AAA experiences, such as Call of Duty: Vanguard, Forza Horizon 5, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and Battlefield 2042. This year brings a slew of AAA titles release, some of which are the most anticipated games of the year.
At the start of the month, on November 4, the large-scale civ-building game Humankind makes its long-awaited console debut. Just four days after that, Skull and Bones releases. While fans may be skeptical of Ubisoft's sea-faring game, with it having a notoriously difficult, almost decade-long development cycle, Skull and Bones is still a big game to compete with. If that wasn't bad enough, Sonic Frontiers releases on the same day. Again, fans are a little skeptical of this one as well, with the trailers showing some stiff new mechanics and some awkward level design, but Sonic is still one of the biggest gaming franchises, and Sonic Frontiers promises to be the biggest, boldest game yet. If Sonic Frontiers ends up pulling it out of the bag, then that could be a huge worry for Pentiment.
Just one day later, on November 9, God of War Ragnarok finally releases. Being one of the most anticipated games of all time, it's a pretty safe bet that God of War Ragnarok will do absolute gangbusters in terms of sales, and with the hype surrounding it, it seems likely that all eyes will be on the game on the lead up to and following its release. Further, the cherry on top of the cake, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, are releasing on November 18 - the very same week as Pentiment.
All of this is to say that Pentiment has some very stiff competition, landing right in the middle of some extremely high-profile games. However, Pentiment has an ace up its sleeve; it's coming to Xbox Game Pass day-one. It's been seen time and time again that Xbox Game Pass can give a title more exposure than it would have ever had before, so if Obsidian manages to provide yet another high-quality RPG, then that perfect storm could be the thing to push Pentiment to the forefront of the gaming world and allow it to stand out from the crowd.
Pentiment launches November 15 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.