The Outer Worlds 2 Direct: Arcadia Is Nice This Time of Year
Immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025, The Outer Worlds 2 Direct revealed all of the new mechanics coming to Obsidian's upcoming sequel.
It has been an absolute whirlwind of news, previews, world premieres and new gameplay reveals during the weekend of Summer Game Fest 2025. New looks were given to titles like Grounded 2, Ninja Gaiden IV, and even a new Call of Duty was announced, however, Obsidian Entertainment followed the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 with their very own The Outer Worlds 2 Direct. The teaser trailer presented at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 presentation can be seen in full below, and a written breakdown of the direct follows.
One of the most interesting things following the sequel is The Outer Worlds 2 is leaving the previous star system of Halycon, and it takes place in a further star system from Earth than even Halycon, in the Arcadia star cluster. What was made immediately transparent by the direct, is Obsidian leaned fully into their trademark humour and storytelling, and chaos will ensue everywhere. Arcadia is a lawless system cut off from Earth, featuring a pressure cooker of a colony bearing immense pressure, torn apart by space-time rifts, factions with ever-shifting alliances, and these three power-hungry factions locked in a war for control.
Like The Outer Worlds (and mostly every other Obsidian Entertainment game), The Outer Worlds 2 allows the player to create themselves from head to toe, giving an in-depth character creator to the player. In The Outer Worlds 2, you've been sent in as an Earth Directorate agent but how you approach problems, tense scenarios, and storyline segments is entirely up to the player. Obsidian gives players complete control, allowing you to select from a group of traits, flaws, and backgrounds that Obsidian promises will 'shape every decision.'
The three warring factions are as follows: The Protectorate, Auntie's Choice, and The Order of the Ascendant. The Protectorate is the law of Arcadia and believes order = everything, while they believe they're beloved peacemakers, it appears locals have differing opinions. Auntie's Choice are those who align themselves with the Matriarch of The Outer Worlds 2, Auntie Cleo (her origin is explored in Prime Video's Secret Level series). This branch of her company is Auntie Cleo x Spacer's Choice, an in-game collaboration that promises freedom, fulfillment, and Auntie Cleo product placement in spades. The Order of the Ascendant is a science-based faction, determined to perfect humanity by solving the Universal Equation.
In The Outer Worlds 2, players will travel with six companions and Obsidian has built upon the system considerably, each with personal stakes in the colony's future and of course, their own opinions on you're behaviour. The companions are listed (along with their allegiances) below courtesy of Obsidian Entertainment.
Niles: Another Earth Directorate recruit torn between duty and defection.
Inez: A former experiment from Auntie's Choice with a grafted combat edge and a moral core.
Aza: A chaos-loving Rift worshipper with a taste for violence and room to grow—maybe.
Marisol: A stoic killer from the Order of the Ascendant with calculations to settle.
Tristen: A walking tank and judge from the Protectorate, looking to dispense justice — or redefine it.
Valerie: A floating, chirping support unit with unexpected upgrades and untapped potential.
Fans who pre-purchase can claim the Commander Zane Pack which comes with Commander Zane-theme armor skin, helmet, signature pistol and dagger, and an Earth Directorate drone companion pet. It's worth noting that if fans purchase the title from Battle.net or the Xbox Marketplace, the purchase is cross-play enabled, you just have to link the accounts to pick up and play on either platform.
The Outer Worlds 2 launches October 29, 2025 and fans can pre-purchase today for the new AAA title price of $79.99.
Be sure to check out all of the other announcements from the Xbox Games Showcase
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When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 2025 is the year of Obsidian Entertainment. Formed 22 years ago, the legendary RPG maker responsible for Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol and countless other video games is on something of a hot streak. Microsoft Gaming purchased Obsidian in 2018, folding the team into the Xbox Game Studios group. Since then it has wrapped production of The Outer Worlds; released Grounded, supporting it through years of early access and regular content drops; released Pentiment in 2022, and Avowed in 2025 following a short delay; and managed to bring Grounded and Pentiment to PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch as part of Microsoft's multiplatform initiative. If that weren't enough, it also has The Outer Worlds 2 and Grounded 2 set to release this year. It's a lot, particularly for a first-party studio operating within the Xbox ecosystem. 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We try to keep pushing things forward while recognizing what really worked well; we don't need to reinvent the things that really matter." "That's a component of how we're able to ship multiple games and keep shipping them, because we're so focused on building on our past successes, making them better while making sure that we aren't throwing everything out and starting over every time, because that can make it take a really long time to bring out new games," he adds. "We're just becoming what we've always wanted to become" Feargus Urquhart, studio head and CEO at Obsidian "Another major thing is that you learn when you ship," says Urquhart, speaking to Obsidian's dedication to shorter development cycles. "Not only do you learn because you actually finish a project, but you learn because your game goes out there and people tell you what they really think of it. The longer you go between those cycles, the less you're learning." 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And I'm not saying I regret buying a Nintendo Switch 2 at launch... but the ROG Xbox Ally X is almost everything I want from a new Xbox Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview: This sequel feels like one of our favorite RPG devs (they also made Fallout: New Vegas and Avowed) finally got the resources to make a new sci-fi adventure with the scope they deserve. Full of details, choices, and great action, this is shaping up to be Outer Worlds 2 exclusive interview: With The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian Entertainment is dedicated to making sneaky playstyles truly viable in its upcoming sequel: "We have a strike team going room-by-room to see if we can stealth properly through each location"The rising cost of video games: The Xbox Showcase confirmed that The Outer Worlds 2 will be the first video game out of Xbox Game Studios in 2025 to cost $80. Obsidian Entertainment says we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" its new RPG.
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From serial killer to bad knees, The Outer Worlds 2 has some ridiculous perks even by RPG standards, including one that just "makes the game pretty unplayable if you happen to choose that"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Outer Worlds 2 is coming this year, October 29, and it's adding a whole host of weird and wonderful perks so that you can roleplay as a serial killer or someone with bad knees. Bad knees is an in-game flaw that actually made me laugh out loud when it was described during the Outer Wilds 2 direct at Summer Game Fest. It allows you to move faster, but the drawback is when you go from crouching to standing, "your knees are gonna make a loud popping noise that makes it so that, well, everyone around you is gonna hear you." If, like me, you're on the wrong side of 30, you likely know at least one person whose knees do this – chances are, that person is you. It's actually a great roleplay quirk for a stealth character. All that crouch walking must play havoc with your joints – Red Dead Redemption 2 actor Roger Clark did say the hardest part of filming for the game was all the squatting: "three days later my thighs were absolutely killing me." One very cool and slightly cruel perk is serial killer. If you choose it, there's a chance every human you kill will drop a heart, which you can collect to get a permanent boost to your health. If you kill a human who "wasn't hostile" to you, there's a 100% chance of the drop. I'm not sure if this means stealth kills guarantee hearts or you have to kill innocent NPCs, but either way, it's an interesting reward for being a murderer, and another great boon for stealth players; if you do get caught, that extra health will stop you getting put down too quickly. The strangest and most unique flaw revealed so far is sungazer. Quite literally what it sounds like, your character just loves to stare at the sun, and that has permanently damaged their vision. The game will look hazy, and ranged weapon spread will be increased by 100%, making you very inaccurate. It "makes the game pretty unplayable if you happen to choose that," says one developer. While you wait for The Outer Worlds 2 to come out, check out all the upcoming Xbox games.
