At The Game Awards this week, The Outer Worlds 2 finally entered orbit. The sequel to Obsidian’s 2019 sci-fi comedy RPG has been AWOL for years, first announced with a cinematic trailer all the way back at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in 2021. That was the last time we saw the game and, with Obsidian instead focusing its attention on Grounded, Pentiment, and the upcoming Avowed, it’s been easy to forget that it did, in fact, have another tentpole RPG in development. Now that our first look at the gameplay is here, I’m surprised by how similar it looks to its predecessor. And those similarities include the platforms listed on the splash screen at the end of the trailer.
The Outer Worlds 2 Is Coming To PS5
That’s right, The Outer Worlds 2, a big new game from a Microsoft-owned studio, is coming to PlayStation, alongside Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The trailer’s inclusion of the PS5 logo alongside Xbox’s usual release platforms suggests that the game will arrive on PS5 day and date, unlike Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which will launch on the competing console sometime in 2025. Xbox is treating this like a straightforward multi-platform release — almost like it’s a publisher, more than a platform holder — and that’s the kind of unusual detail that can easily get lost in the hubbub of a buzzy show like The Game Awards.
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When Microsoft acquired Obsidian back in 2018, The Outer Worlds’ launch was on the horizon, so the series’ future prospects were heavily discussed. Microsoft honored Obsidian’s existing plans to launch the game on PS4, but has since danced around what that would mean for the franchise going forward. Would future games be Xbox exclusive? Given that Microsoft’s acquisition spree — which culminated in its purchase of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard — seemed to be a quest to garner new exclusives, it was a safe assumption that future Outer Worlds games would only come to Xbox and PC.
But, recently, Microsoft has seemed to give up on the idea of Xbox-only games entirely. Indiana Jones, the most acclaimed Xbox exclusive in a decade or so, won’t be exclusive for long. Similar critical darlings like Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, and Hi-Fi Rush are all available on other platforms too, and Xbox has said that it will determine which games come to other platforms on a case by case basis going forward. But nothing, even Halo, is off the table.
What Does This Mean For Xbox?
It has me, and others, expecting Xbox as a console manufacturer to go the same way Sega went after the failure of the Dreamcast. If you’re an Xbox fan who’s worried that may happen, Xbox re-revealing one of its big franchise games with the promise that it won’t be exclusive is a glaring red flag that this may be the beginning of the end. If Xbox is willing to release its biggest games, like Indiana Jones and Outer Worlds 2, on other platforms, and isn’t even ruling out its heaviest hitters like Halo and Gears of War from crossing over, why buy an Xbox console?And if there’s no good reason to buy an Xbox over a PlayStation, why continue to invest in making them?
As someone who primarily plays on PS5, none of this bothers me. I’m waiting a bit longer to play Indiana Jones and am happy I’ll be able to play The Outer Worlds 2 at launch. But it isn’t good for the industry to have PlayStation’s only major competitor step out of the console game. That’s especially true given the ludicrous price point the PS5 Pro is currently selling at, despite lacking features the base model had.
Though the chain of events that leads to Xbox bowing out of the console arms race seems logical, it won’t actually be the end until Xbox says it is. But it seems clear that with this generation, Microsoft is transitioning from a hardware manufacturer to a publisher and service provider. When the change has finally been made, we’ll look back on The Outer Worlds 2 as the beginning of the end for the Xbox we’ve always known.
