Obsidian Entertainment, the studio responsible for titles like The Outer Worlds, has confirmed that their upcoming role-playing games with complex narratives will not be released in early access. The company believes that this model, which worked well for Grounded, is not suitable for experiences where the story is the central focus. Players will have to wait longer for the complete product.
Complex narrative demands closed and polished development 🎭
According to the studio, early access allows for adjusting game mechanics in survival titles, where gameplay is modular. However, in an RPG with narrative branches and linked dialogues, releasing an incomplete version breaks immersion and makes coherent feedback difficult. Obsidian prefers to deliver a complete experience, with all its narrative and progression systems already calibrated, thus avoiding having to restructure the plot on the fly.
Spoiler: patience doesn't grant experience points ⏳
So, while Grounded let us build bases and flee from giant bugs in alpha phase, Obsidian's future games will ask us to wait like a secondary character in a dungeon. That said, at least when they arrive, we won't have to worry about patch 4.7 ruining the third act's plot twist. Because yes, waiting is a nuisance, but paying for a half-baked story is even worse.