In an out of nowhere moment, Nintendo announced that Obsidian Entertainment’s new RPG, The Outer Worlds, will be coming to the Switch. This shocked many due to the game not yet being out on other platforms and looking like it may have been too much for the Switch. Virtuous will be working with Obsidian to bring the game to Switch, but there is more significance here than I think people realize.
When it was announced that The Witcher 3 was coming to Switch, that was significant due to how the game was being ported. It was the full game and all dlc on one cartridge, plus bonus items included in the physical release. Yes sacrifices had to be made visually, but the entire experience is there and the UI has been reworked for Switch. All that said though, The Witcher 3, for all its technical prowess, is still a game from a few years ago.
The Outer Worlds is a game that looks to push PS4 and Xbox One and make full use of their tech for an open world experience. Obsidian looks to be building on their work in Fallout New Vegas, but without the restrictions of the creation engine Bethesda made them use. This game looks amazing so far and has a lot of potential, and is coming to Switch just a short time after other systems. Yes games like Doom Eternal are also coming to Switch at the same time as other systems, but there is a difference here. Doom Eternal is not a true open world game, but rather based on a mission based structure which is easier on the Switch hardware. There is also the fact that the idtech engine that Doom Eternal runs on is extremely scalable which aids the porting process.
There is also the overall design of The Outer Worlds. The creators of the original Fallout games and Fallout New Vegas are planning to advance the style of gameplay from those titles into new areas and that brings me to my next point. There is no true Fallout game on Switch yet. Yes there is Fallout Shelter, but that does not count in the slightest.
What we have here is an advanced limit pushing game, in the style of true classics, and its coming to Switch very soon after launch. No doubt sacrifices will be made, but this is an RPG that looks to push the genre forward and this is much more of a sign of the Switch’s success so far than a Witcher 3 port. The fact that the publisher and developer see the value in bringing the game to Switch already is a sign of validation and the knowledge that the audience is there. This is a game to keep an eye on for Switch, and will be interesting to see the final product.