The global pandemic that hit the world in early 2020 caused devastation all over. Not only were millions of lives lost, but numerous industries were also affected, leading to many people wondering how they would do their jobs. That included the gaming industry, which went from a “steady pace” of showing up at the developer or publisher’s home base and doing work to trying to get work done from home. It wasn’t an easy transition, but it was something that many adapted to. In the case of The Outer Worlds 2, though, it was a game that was announced during the pandemic, but almost didn’t make it out of it.
For those who don’t recall, the original game was made by Obsidian Entertainment, and played just like you would expect one of its RPGs to play. It was expansive, gave you many choices, and had a weirdness and hilarity that couldn’t be denied.
On a YouTube show, Obsidian’s Feargus Urquhart admitted that The Outer Wilds 2 almost didn’t make it out of the pandemic, as Obsidian had a bunch of games that they wanted to complete, and they weren’t sure they could get them all done:
“Development is going really well; I’m really impressed with the team. We have people on this project that just get it and worked on the first game. […] We had a hard time at the studio during Covid. We tried to move forward on all these projects. There was talk about scrapping The Outer Worlds 2 [and Grounded] and to just throw the whole team on Avowed. I appreciate Microsoft and all the teams, we sat down together and said: no. We will get there. Not on the original timeline, but we will get there. And I think now; that’s been proven.”
He went on to note how despite the misgivings of whether they could pull them off, the games turned out well, and that’s why they’re able to progress so far with this sequel. It should be noted, though, that Avowed is one of the bigger question marks that the developer is dealing with. They recently delayed the game, and various looks at the title don’t paint a picture of it being something that is “to the level” of Obsidian Entertainment.
So, going back to its space RPG franchise, it might be good that it’s taken so long to get enough of the team on it to progress it, as that could be a rebound title should things go poorly with the other one.
