The Outer Worlds Won't Be As Long as Some People Think

By Colin Stevens

The Outer Worlds, developed by Knights of the Old Republic II and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment, won’t be nearly as long as some fans are hypothesizing.

In an interview with GameInformer, co-directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky discuss fan expectations for the game, and while they strongly feel it’s an awesome game fans will want to play, they want people to know it’s more of a “reactive RPG” than a sprawling open-world.

“People think it’s more of an open-sandbox of a game, like ‘oh, they’re gonna be able to go anywhere on any of the planets’… no…” said Cain. “People are speculating, like, hundreds of hours of gameplay… and no.”

When asked if players could beat the game in 15-40 hours, the developers said that would be a reasonable guess. Boyarsky compared it to the size of one of its most popular games, saying “It’s probably roughly comparable to maybe like a KOTOR 2-sized game, maybe a little bit smaller than that.”

They also emphasized that this game is being made as a highly-replayable experience, and that the time it takes players to finish the game will vary drastically depending on their play style.

Obsidian officially announced The Outer Worlds during The Game Awards 2018, revealing that it would be published by Take-Two’s independent developer Private Devision label and not Microsoft, which announced it would acquire Obsidian during XO18.

For more on The Outer Worlds, check out how it’s bringing fun back to science fiction.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.