I looked at Outer Worlds as toe dipping into the waters to see if they COULD do something like they kept a lot of guard rails on the player, because they'd rather limit the scope of the game, and themselves, than give a bad impression of their abilities. I think Obsidian has absolutely earned my trust. We'll see how Avowed goes though, but I'm definitely in for the ride already. :-)
The trailer looks great, but I know better than to trust trailers at this stage.
Skyrim is popular because of its modding capabilities. I would have never touched it after the first 60 hours if it didn't have a great modding community.
If you want a similar cow to milk, you have to be prepared to invest into creating good modding tools.
Most of their games at this point are pretty different than Bethesda rpgs. Pentiment, Grounded, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Pathfinders, Stick of Truth etc. They’ve actually gone on to make some pretty unique titles, while Bethesda has milked the rpg cow for pretty much their entire existence.
Well, they didn't make the Gamebryo engine that NV was built on, that was provided by Bethesda. Not saying Obsidian couldn't pull it off, but they don't have the same kind of experience building engines that Bethesda does. The writing is top notch though.