Since Avowed was first revealed, many have thought it to be Obsidian Entertainment's take on something like The Elder Scrolls, as The Outer Worlds certainly has a Fallout flavor to it. Obsidian, which worked on Fallout: New Vegas in the past which bolsters those comparisons, is currently hard at work on the upcoming RPG, but Phil Spencer says Avowed and The Elder Scrolls are very different. One thing they have in common, though, is very little official information being available.
While The Elder Scrolls 6 news is years away, details regarding Obsidian's game may come sooner, and a small yet surprising detail about Avowed has recently been revealed. Redditor taclane recently dug through files on Obsidian's updated website to discover that Avowed is internally known as Project Alabama.
Reddtor taclane discovered this by pulling apart Avowed's highlight clip and looking at its metadata, which describes it as "Alabama_Teaser_Animatic" in a string of code. Alabama is known for a lot of things, whether that be sweet tea or its Alabama-Auburn football rivalry, but it's not really known for anything in regards to video games. It may initially be a bit shocking, but it's also worth mentioning that internal code names don't really need any rhyme or reason other than to obscure the title in question. Obsidian Entertainment, notably, has a thing for using states as code names.
For example, many hoped that Obsidian's Project Louisiana was code name for Fallout: New Orleans, but it ended up being Pillars of Eternity 2. The Outer Worlds was Project Indiana and Grounded was Project Maine. The aforementioned taclane also highlights other Obsidian titles Project Mississippi and Project Illinois, which have no associated reveals, as well as Project Missouri (Josh Sawyer's mysterious Obsidian project) and Project Arkansas (The Outer Worlds 2).
With this in mind, Alabama will be found in data for many, if not all, Avowed-related files moving forward, something useful to know but not really substantial. This doesn't mean much in terms of content, though taclane joking refers to an Alabama folder storing Avowed files or potential speculation about Avowed scenery being based on the Southern state as conversations eventually being raised. Ultimately, though, it's unlikely that sweet tea will be a thing in Avowed or that any NPC is going to yell "War Eagle" or "Roll Tide."
It's an interesting code name nonetheless, and Avowed fans should keep this in mind regarding any future data leaks about the game. Some of this should be taken with a grain of salt still, as Project Mississippi and Project Illinois may manifest into nothing, but for fans of Obsidian Entertainment, it's quite the fun fact.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
Source: Reddit