"There have been a number of people actually at the studio who have floated the idea of a Pillars Tactics game," says Obsidian's Josh Sawyer when interviewed about the future of Pillars of Eternity

What you need to know

• YouTuber channel Limit Break Network recently conducted with Josh Sawyer, lead developer from Obsidian Entertainment, who helped create the Pillars of Eternity franchise and worked on other titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Pentiment.
• During the interview, Josh Sawyer talks about the origin of the Pillars of Eternity franchise, his involvement in the upcoming title Avowed, and the studio considering the idea of making a tactics-strategy game spin-off of Pillars of Eternity.
• Avowed, Obsidian's next big, first-person RPG adventure, is set to launch next year on February 18, 2025 for Xbox Series X|S and PC via Windows and Steam.

On September 26, 2024, the YouTube channel Limit Break Network, interviewed Josh Sawyer, a veteran lead designer at Obsidian Entertainment who helped develop some of the studio's most critically acclaimed titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Pentiment, and led the creation of the Pillars of Eternity franchise (as sourced by @HazzadorGamin on X).

During this interview, Josh goes on to tell informative stories about the creative process behind Pillars of Eternity's development, how the game's general concepts came to be, how it attempts to modernize the game design of classic CRPGs like the original Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, his contributions to Obsidian's upcoming RPG, Avowed, and more.

Pillars TACTICS? - Obsidian's Josh Sawyer on the Past, Present and Future of Pillars of Eternity - YouTube

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One particularly interesting topic that came up the near end of the interview was Josh Sawyer asked about the idea of making a new Pillars of Eternity game with the budget of Baldur's Gate 3, he said that the developers at Obsidian are considering a tactics-style Pillars of Eternity game.

Josh Sawyer mentions pitching the idea of making a Pillars tactics may be a tough sell due to now niche the genre is and how much developer resources should be allocated. However, he and the developers at Obsidian are fascinated by the idea of Strategy-RPGs and their small but extremely passionate fanbase who will play them to death even if they're not skilled at them.

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Could a tactical Pillars of Eternity games actually happen someday?

Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition - Launch Trailer - YouTube

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The idea of making a tactical Pillars of Eternity game is an interesting idea to shake up the formula, as these games often use combat systems akin to real-time strategy times that you can pause to make strategic plays. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire played around with the idea of turn-based combat when it included a turn-based mode, but it wasn't received well, as the game was designed with real-time strategic combat in mind. 

Related: Playing Avowed for the first time while discussing the delay, Xbox performance, and ray tracing with the developers

I personally never played any Pillars of Eternity game despite being praised as some of Obsidian's best PC games (my colleague Rich Edmonds even gave glowing reviews for Pillars of Eternity 1 and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire) because I tend to prefer RPGs with turn-based combat like the excellent Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. However, I would be willing to give the series a chance if Obsidian did make a Pillars of Eternity game with turn-based tactical gameplay in mind from the ground up. 

But we will have to wait and see if this idea becomes a reality in the future. In the meantime, Obsidian fans can look forward to playing Avowed, its next big-budget first-person RPG that's scheduled to launch on February 18, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S and PC via Windows and Steam.