The time is almost here for the release of The Outer Worlds. The review embargo has lifted, and the overall reception seems to be solid for the new RPG. Hopefully, sales follow suit, as developer Obsidian has high hopes to create a franchise. Interestingly, the company isn’t necessarily looking to forward the mainstream trend.
In an interview with Game Informer, co-director Leonard Boyarsky and narrative lead Nitai Poddar talked about the potential of sequels down the road. They mentioned that while they want to expand the game, they aren’t too keen on going open-world, which has become somewhat of a standard over the years for AAA RPG development.
“I’m always skeptical of this idea that seems to be going around AAA development that open-world is the standard,” says Poddar. “That if you’re going to have a very big budget game, that it should be open-world. I think it’s very easy to get burnt out on open-world games because they tend to be so sprawling, so massive, that every open-world you play tends to be the same kind of thing. Go here, collect that, see that landmark. I think there is a lot of value in having an open-ended game that is still structured around individual discrete levels.”
It’s an interesting philosophy, especially since it goes so in the face of the standard, as Poddar says. Of course, it may be putting the horse before the cart, so to speak, since the first game isn’t out quite yet. But The Outer Worlds will release on October 25th, and you can check out the launch trailer for the game through here.
