Microsoft Sees The Outer Worlds As An Exclusive Franchise

The Outer Worlds is shaping up quite nicely ahead of its release on October 25 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, with a Switch version arriving at a later date. If you want to play its potential sequel, however, you might need an Xbox.

That's the word from head of Xbox Studios Matt Booty, who revealed during an interview with Game Informer that Microsoft believes The Outer Worlds can be "an enduring franchise" for the company. Microsoft acquired Obsidian, the studio developing The Outer Worlds, back in 2018, adding it to the list of 15 developers that comprise the Xbox Games Studios' roster alongside the likes of Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Playground Games.

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The Outer Worlds is currently being published by Private Division, the indie-centric publishing arm of Take-Two. But beyond this, Microsoft will likely be handling publishing duties for any potential sequels, which could also mean the franchise becomes a Microsoft exclusive.

This isn't the case with all of Microsoft's first-party projects. Booty explains that with an IP like Minecraft, for example, it makes sense to keep the franchise as open and multi-platform as possible, whereas other games will be better supported by the resources Microsoft can put into them. The Outer Worlds falls into the latter category, as Booty expresses Microsoft's high hopes for the game and its future potential.

“I think that it's a great universe they’ve created," he says. "And I think about what are the things that you need for a franchise to kind of bear weight? Like what can it withstand? Is it a narrative, is it a set of characters, is it a universe that's big enough that you could start to add onto it?”

While PlayStation 4 and Switch owners will be able to get their hands on The Outer Worlds later this year, they might need to invest in an Xbox or PC to continue the interstellar story.