The Outer Worlds was a really pleasant surprise when it arrived in 2019 - an old-school spacefaring RPG that took the best bits of Fallout and remixed them through a new lens.

It's therefore not a huge surprise to learn that it's getting a sequel after The Outer Worlds 2 was announced in 2021 as part of an Xbox showcase. Here are all the (for now quite scant) details that you should know.

For other exciting upcoming titles for Xbox Series X and S, check out our list of the games you should keep an eye on right here.

The Outer Worlds 2 announcement

As mentioned above, The Outer Worlds 2 was announced in the middle of 2021 as part of a major Xbox showcase - taking a fair few people by surprise since it had been less than two years since the first game's release at that point.

This was how Xbox did things at that point, though, making announcements early before leaving things sometimes years without an update on their actual expected arrival.

The announcement teaser is unsurprisingly firmly tongue-in-cheek, taking the mickey out of CGI teasers as it unfolds. That said, this doesn't change the fact that it is very much a CGI teaser itself.

The Outer Worlds 2 release date

The first trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 gave no indication of a likely release date, which is its own clue that the game shouldn't be expected particularly soon.

Given the development cycle on a typical open-world RPG like this, we'd be surprised if the game came out even in 2023, since that would still mark a very quick four-year turnaround from the last title.

So, speculatively, we think a 2024 date is more likely, although we could find out more on this front at some point soon to put the rumours to rest.

The Outer Worlds 2 platforms

The Outer Worlds is being developed by Obsidian, under the wider umbrella of Xbox and Bethesda, so you can be pretty confident about a few things regarding its expected platforms.

The game will come to Xbox Series X and Series S, for one thing, and it'll do so via Game Pass on its release date, while skipping PlayStation 5 entirely.

This makes it a console exclusive for Xbox since we'd be hugely surprised if it made it to Switch like the first game eventually did.

However, PC players can breathe easy, as Obsidian is all but certain to also launch the game on PC since it's a key part of the developer's historical focus.

The Outer Worlds 2 story

The first Outer Worlds had a few twists to its multiple endings depending on the choices you made throughout the game, but they all converge again at a certain point with some major consistencies (beware of spoilers below!).

The Stranger, the player character, ends up as the leader of the Halcyon colonies that the game lets you explore, freed from the yoke of Earth and its corporations.

It was a pretty finite end to proceedings, and we'd therefore posit that it's likely The Outer Worlds 2 will start afresh, with a new player character and planets to explore.

This would be consistent with its heritage given this was always how the Fallout series handled things, for example.

The consequence would also be that The Outer Worlds 2 would be free to tell an all-new story with no requirement to be overly deferential to the events of the first game.

The Outer Worlds 2 gameplay

There are some assumptions we can safely make about how The Outer Worlds 2 will play - after all, it's a sequel, so there'll be some consistency.

You can therefore expect it to be a somewhat tactical shooter with RPG roots that switches between extensive and interesting dialogue trees with the strangers and companions you meet, and shootouts.

There will be planets to explore, enemies to vanquish, and it should mix in plenty of comedy while that all unfolds.

Whether the shooting is expanded upon, with new options and technologies, we can't say at present, but we also think it would be a safe bet to hope that it gets some iteration.