An industry analyst has reported that a sequel to The Outer Worlds is currently in pre-production. Obsidian Entertainment's space RPG released about a year ago, and while it got widely positive reviews, fans were somewhat underwhelmed by the length and size of the game. A recent DLC, Peril on Gorgon, rectified this somewhat, giving players much more content to explore and a lot more decisions to make.

While a sequel to the acclaimed space adventure was teased at the end of The Outer Worlds, fans probably weren't expecting it for some time. The small RPG developer currently has a lot of projects on its plate. Its pint-sized survival game Grounded is still in early access and receiving constant gameplay updates, and a lot of RPG fans are eagerly awaiting the release of Avowed, which looks for all intents and purposes like a better take on the formula that made Elder Scrolls so successful.

According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, Grounded and Avowed aren't the only projects in Obsidian's future. Following the announcement that Outer Worlds will be arriving on Steam later this month, Ahmad remarked in a Tweet that he'd heard of a new game in the franchise being explored and put through pre-production. He provided very little in the way of sources, and tempered expectations by confessing that this early in the project, it's entirely possible that the game might turn out to be a different IP altogether. But Ahmad has clearly heard from someone that a sequel is in the works, and it's hard to believe that he would have sent this Tweet if his source wasn't someone trustworthy.


Studio design director Josh Sawyer recently confirmed that Obsidian has a project in development that has yet to be announced. Nothing's been confirmed, but it seems about as likely as anything else that the project is a sequel to The Outer Worlds. Following the recent buyout of ZeniMax and Bethesda by Obsidian's parent company Microsoft, a lot of fans have expressed hope that the developer will get a chance to go back to the Fallout franchise and create a sequel to its own Fallout: New Vegas, widely considered the best game in the series. But since Sawyer's remarks came well before the buyout, it's basically impossible for a new Fallout game to be what he was referring to. Between those remarks and Ahmad's, it seems much more likely that an Outer Worlds sequel is on the way.

There's a lot to love about The Outer Worlds, and despite its few shortcomings, it remains an exceptional RPG experience. While the Peril on Gorgon DLC has given fans a great chance to dive back into the Halcyon colony, it's understandable that players would want more. Obsidian is well known for its RPGs, and if Ahmad's right, The Outer Worlds may yet become a very strong new franchise.