Xbox Dev Obsidian Announces New Turn-Based Combat Feature For Pillars Of Eternity

In the run up to launch in mid-February, Xbox developer Obsidian would have been pretty busy getting Avowed ready for prime time - but that hasn't meant this prolific studio has been quiet elsewhere; far from it.

To celebrate 10 years of Pillars of Eternity, the team has been working on a big old patch - a patch that "addresses a wide range of fixes and improvements across visuals, combat, quests, and more". Then, later this year, a further update will add turn-based combat to the game as a "new way to experience encounters" in PoE.

"Coming later this year, Watchers will be able to help us test a brand-new feature: Turn-Based Combat. We’re excited to explore this new way to experience encounters in Pillars of Eternity, and your feedback will help shape its future. More details on how to participate will be shared in the near future, so keep an eye on our socials and in our discord."

We can't say that we've been keeping much of a close eye on Pillars of Eternity in recent years, but this sounds like a pretty cool update for a decade-old game at this point. We'd assume this new combat style is an option, given players will be used to the game's existing systems - but it's still very cool to see this level of support from Obsidian in 2025.

If you weren't aware, the team's recent RPG Avowed is actually based in the Pillars of Eternity universe, with Obsidian revisiting its isometric world from a whole new perspective earlier this year. If you'd like to hear our thoughts on Avowed, we'll drop a link to our Pure Xbox review down below - and we'll also throw a link to the team's PoE patch notes underneath as well.

Are you thinking of going to back to PoE in 2025? Tell us what you think of this down in the comments.