The Outer Worlds 2 satire has a Microsoft-shaped problem

Almost immediately in Outer Worlds 2The player receives news of a radical change in the company: Auntie Cleo and Spacer’s Choice, two of the in-game retail brands, have merged to form Auntie’s Choice. Less a chain store and more a feudal powerhouse, Auntie’s Choice manages its employees — serfs, really — with a balance-sheet ruthlessness, and its military business is far more important than its cheery, public-facing purveyor of somewhat useful crap that customers can’t get from anyone else.

Fictional business news parallels real-life business news. Right before developer Obsidian Entertainment started working on it Outer Worlds 2 In 2019, the studio was acquired as part of Microsoft Shopping spree for game developers. Less than a decade later, Microsoft’s gaming division doesn’t seem to be thriving despite its deep talent pool; In 2025, the company’s gaming efforts were largely flattened High prices, Layoffs, Unbalanced prioritiesAnd consumer interest from senior company officials Becoming an artificial intelligence company.

However, Obsidian is still around, and has something to say about these things. At least the new role-playing game, which casts players as an agent in a colorful fascist organization that becomes embroiled in a conflict between a giant corporation and a totalitarian government, might have some things to say about it. The studio itself? It’s a little less clear.

Outer Worlds 2 Creative Director Leonard Boyarsky and Game Director Brandon Adler aren’t in the business of making games that respond to any specific moment — games take a long time to make, after all, and fun is what he’s focused on. They admit that their game scenario can seem quite topical. Tim (Kane), one of the founders Outer worlds Franchise) and I’ve always made games about what happens when people gain power,” Boyarsky told me in a Zoom interview with Adler. “We’re constantly expanding on that.”

Boyarsky and Kane (who declared “Semi-retirement“in 2023 but still working under contract with Obsidian) are co-creators of He falls The franchise has deep roots in the PC RPG scene, having worked on a series of famous classics such as Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines And people who don’t play much but are dearly loved Arcanum: From Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Their influence is everywhere, creating modern trends in RPGs where factional conflicts and institutional distrust are leveraged to generate interesting problems for players to solve.

the Outer worlds The Games are best understood as another round He falls. Both franchises use difference in American history to dramatize a strange, distant future defined by unbalanced institutions. He falls It imagines a post-World War II nuclear golden age, in which 1950s science fiction becomes science fact, before 21st-century thermonuclear war turns the world into… Mad MaxA wasteland style where players live a strange and mediocre life. in Outer worlds“Fictional history. President William McKinley was never assassinated, the antitrust movement never materialized, and the robber barons of the early 20th century were rampant for hundreds of years. Hence the heavy layer of corporate satire, which Obsidian expands on Outer Worlds 2 To become something darker.

In the first 15 minutes of the match, players are hit with the following:

There’s a more ferocious undercurrent to the sequel’s iteration Outer worlds“Corporate humor, pulling the thread between corporate excesses and the rise of fascism. At least, I think there is. Maybe Obsidian thinks so too?”

“We’re not talking about the fascist side of it, but we all end up in situations where we don’t have control. Even people in power, whether it’s in the real world or these games, I think people in power are just as much a victim of the system as anyone else,” Boyarsky said. “They think they control these things, but not everyone can actually exercise as much power as people want. Because you were raised in the system, your reaction depends on how you were raised in the system, and your beliefs that emerged through what is right and what is wrong by your parents or society in general. So we all find ourselves in situations where things are like: I have no idea how I got here. I think I have to do my best“.

I tell Boyarsky that this sounds like a video game-like view of the world, and I ask him why he thinks games are an ideal way to address these dilemmas. Tell me that, at least when it comes down to it Outer worldsThe themes came from the convergence of his interests and those of Cain. Cain says I like the idea of ​​A Futurama– An inspiring place, prone to absurdity. Boyarsky says he wants this game to maintain that, but push toward something more difficult and less goofy.

“The thing for me has always been — and this is something we’re really continuing to dig into — that we all tell ourselves stories,” Boyarsky said. “This is how we deal with the world, with reality. It’s built by how you’re raised and what people tell you when you’re younger. But when people choose that story, they can control you very easily.”

These are all powerful ideas, but they’re also full of cynicism thanks to events largely beyond Obsidian’s control. Some of them relate to geopolitical issues outside the gaming industry. But there are other companies located closer to home for developers that are now owned by Microsoft.

“All I can say is that the irony wasn’t lost on us when we were in the middle of making the first game. We were up against corporate power and all that stuff — and Microsoft bought us!” says Boyarsky. “But we received nothing but support from them. They loved what we were doing with the first group. They loved what we were doing with the first group Outer worldsThey support us in making this game. We have not received any response or messages from above telling us this Don’t do thisor Make sure you do this“.

While it may be true that Microsoft did not interfere in Obsidian’s creative operations Outer Worlds 2the company certainly had preferences about how the matter was discussed in the studio. The game, with Boyarsky’s interest in exploring the plight of what happens to those not in power when people with petty interests come to power, seemed particularly relevant to Microsoft’s business entanglements with the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Before we go any further, a Microsoft representative interrupts to point out the company’s latest statements on the topic It can be found onlineand that they wanted to keep the conversation with Obsidian “focused on the game.”

So let’s focus on the game: Early on you can accept a mission that may, depending on your choices, send you to retrieve something from the Ministry of Res. As the name suggests, it is a propaganda uniform. Read the stations there and you’ll see how they work: reports from all over the region are sent through the Ministry, where workers “sanitize” them to ensure they match the messages of the space colony’s ruling authority, the Protectorate. Life imitating obsidian art again. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

_{Outer Worlds 2 Available now on PS5, Xbox, and PC.}