It was announced today that Microsoft would officially be taking over any publishing efforts for “future iterations” of The Outer Worlds, the sci-fi action-RPG from Obsidian Entertainment.
Following the studio acquisition of Obsidian Entertainment, it makes sense that Microsoft would now be taking over publishing for one of Obsidian’s newest IPs, but the odd thing about this story is that yesterday during Take-Two Interactive’s Q4 2021 Earnings Call, president Karl Slatoff stated that Take-Two was “fully committed” to the future of The Outer Worlds.
“And we will be participating in the franchise and whatever the future holds for that franchise,” Slatoff said. “So we feel really good about it. And we think that it’s still building audience and this game itself has a lot of life left in it. And in the future — we’ll see what the future holds for it. But we do think it’s a long-term franchise and it is certainly something that we’re pleased with the results.”
Whether that means Take-Two is still getting a cut of the revenue from The Outer Worlds, or they will maintain some sort of creative undertaking on the project is yet to be seen, but one way or another, Take-Two seems to be planning on holding onto whatever part of The Outer Worlds they have secured.
It’s also entirely possible that this was just stockholder call jargon and they have no intention of supporting the endeavor that is now Microsoft-owned. The timing is just weird.
In a statement made to Gamasutra, Private Division cleared the confusion up a bit by stating that, while Microsoft and Obsidian Entertainment would be taking over publishing, while the company would still support 2018’s The Outer Worlds.
“Private Division is still supporting and marketing The Outer Worlds, including the upcoming release of Murder on Eridanos DLC on Nintendo Switch,” said the company. “Moving forward, Obsidian and Microsoft will be publishing future iterations in the franchise, and we’re absolutely thrilled to see where they take it.”
With a sequel to The Outer Worlds most likely happening in the future, it seems that Microsoft is moving forward with fully taking over the efforts made from their new first-party studio, Obsidian Entertainment.
