The Outer Worlds 2

The Outer Worlds 2 is Obsidian Entertainment’s sequel to the 2019 role-playing game The Outer Worlds. It was announced at Xbox and Bethesda’s E3 2021 presentation through a deliberately unfinished-looking teaser whose narrator jokes that the team had neither a finished design nor gameplay to show. That reveal established the project as a new entry rather than an expansion for the original game. Obsidian is developing it for Xbox Game Studios, following Microsoft’s acquisition of the studio in 2018. The game is built in Unreal Engine 5, replacing the first game’s Unreal Engine 4 technology.

At the June 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian presented gameplay and named Arcadia as the setting. Arcadia is described as a colony split by political conflict and by rifts that threaten its future. The player is an Earth Directorate agent sent to investigate the source of those rifts. Unlike the first game’s Halcyon colony, Arcadia brings together three competing powers: the Protectorate, Auntie’s Choice, and the Order of the Ascendant. Auntie’s Choice is the corporate merger of Auntie Cleo’s and Spacer’s Choice, companies known from the first game. The Order of the Ascendant is presented as a faction that follows a philosophy centered on mathematical and spiritual ideas.

The sequel retains first-person action and role-playing systems while adding named tools and weapons shown in its 2025 material. Footage featured a shrink ray, melee weapons, firearms, and a system allowing the protagonist to use flaws—negative traits accepted in exchange for benefits. Obsidian has said players can recruit companions, shape a character through skills and perks, and make choices affecting their path through Arcadia. The 2025 presentation also showed dialogue responses marked by character attributes, including options tied to low intelligence. The studio has emphasized that faction relationships and player decisions can alter how the colony reacts.

The Outer Worlds 2 is scheduled to launch on October 29, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Microsoft announced that it will be available on day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Obsidian’s announcement placed a standard edition at $69.99 in the United States and a Premium Edition at $99.99, with early access included for Premium buyers. The game’s release marks Obsidian’s return to the satirical science-fiction universe it created with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the original game’s co-directors, and helped define its retro-futurist corporate satire during the original release in 2019 worldwide.