OK, this delay is a bit weird but entirely understandable. With all of the panic surrounding the Wuhan Coronavirus, there’s been plenty of cancellations, delays and other problems in a variety of industries. Various events in China and around the world have been canceled as a result of the spread of this deadly disease. Even the production of the Switch console dived as a result. Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds is the latest to fall victim to this trend.
“We’re delaying @OuterWorlds on Nintendo Switch due to the coronavirus impacting the Virtuos team working on the port, to provide them enough time to finish development,” said the team in charge of development. As of now, no members of the development team have fallen ill, but this precautionary measure is worthwhile to prevent that.
The team at developer Virtuos has worked on plenty of high-profile RPG s in the past for the Switch, handling ports for Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and Dark Souls Remastered. So I would not be too concerned over their ability to handle the work, especially with the extra time they’re now taking. We wish them the best of luck and good health.
“To clarify, the team at Virtuos is ok, but their office has remained closed during this time,” the publisher explained in a follow-up tweet. “We’re working with the team to determine an updated development timeline, and will share more regarding a new launch date shortly.”
The Outer Worlds is a wonderful game, as we noted in our review, it’s probably one of the best RPGs of 2019, mostly due to a cast of engaging characters and tons of immersive story. So when it finally does release for the Nintendo Switch, it will be worth the wait. There is another nugget of good news in this mess though. It turns out that the previous plan to sell the game purely via the Nintendo eShop and digital download codes at retails has changed. As of now, the physical versions of the game will, in fact, include a game cartridge for the console.
“We’ll now be releasing the physical version on cartridge,” said the publisher to fans on Twitter. No news on a new release date yet though. That news should be coming shortly.
