Microsoft wants to turn The Outer Worlds into an ‘enduring Xbox franchise’

Microsoft’s first-party games boss hopes he can develop Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds into an enduring franchise for Xbox, he’s said.

Xbox acquired Obsidian in late 2018, but its E3 award-winning RPG remains with publisher Private Division and is planned for release on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, as well as Xbox One and PC.

Speaking to Game Informer, Xbox’s Matt Booty indicated that the platform holder has aspirations for Outer Worlds beyond its debut release and hopes that it can help “expand” the franchise.

Booty said he’s open to Obsidian and other acquired studios making multiplatform games if they’re a good fit, but that he thinks Outer Worlds is the “kind of game” that would benefit from being Xbox exclusive.

“Yeah, I think that’d be that kind of game,” he said. “From what we’ve seen of Outer Worlds, my hope is that that’s something we can build and that it really becomes an enduring franchise and it really starts to grow and we can help expand that.

“I think that it’s a great universe they’ve created 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?

“That’s what I love about what Halo has created. It can support all kinds of novels and fiction.”

In the same interview Booty confirmed that Obsidian is working on several unannounced games for Xbox.

Obsidian has previously said its acquisition by Microsoft has had no effect on its work on Outer Worlds.

Co-game director Leonard Boyarsky told Polygon: “The acquisition really hasn’t been a part of what we’re doing at all [on The Outer Worlds]. We’ve just been working on this game [with] the great folks over at Private Division. None of that is going to change.”

The Outer Worlds will release for Xbox One, PC and PS4 in October.