LogInA sequel to a game criticizing capitalism from a studio that brought us Avowed costing $80 didn't sit right with many gamers.
Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2 got an official release date over the weekend, along with confirmation that the upcoming sequel will be the first game affected by Xbox's price hike announced in May and will cost $80 for the standard edition, leading to a tsunami-sized wave of backlash from the gaming community on social media and Steam forums.
Obsidian
Representing the essence of the controversy like nowhere else are the Discussions on Steam, where almost every active topic created in the past hours lambasts the game for its price, while the few remaining threads criticize the sequel for offering only five languages and English-only voiceover.
In their comments, people have expressed outrage not only over the price of The Outer Worlds 2 but also that this particular game – a sequel rather than an original title – was chosen by Xbox to spearhead the price hikes.
Adding to the criticism is that The Outer Worlds 2 comes from the studio that released Avowed earlier this year, a game that had abysmal player numbers and was not well received by gamers, along with the fact that the game costs even more than $80 in Europe, reaching $97.45 in Switzerland, $94.94 in the UK, $93.18 in Poland, and $91.36 in Eurozone countries when converted to USD.
As a cherry on top, many have found it particularly ironic that the sequel to The Outer Worlds, a game that criticized late-stage capitalism, is the first Xbox title to launch with an increased price, succinctly summarizing their feelings about the debacle as "capitalism bad, give us $80."
To put the $80 price into perspective: that could get you two copies of Elden Ring Nightreign – one for youreself, one for your buddy when FromSoftware finally adds duos – or a bundle of 2025's best indie and AA games – Schedule I and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, respectively – with ten bucks to spare, or Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and two copies of R.E.P.O., and that's just 2025 games we're talking about – bringing in older masterpieces that cost a fraction of the price feels like kicking a downed opponent.
One older masterpiece I will bring up, however, is Fallout: New Vegas. For $80, you could buy eight copies of it on Steam, and using Avowed as the frame of reference, there's no conceivable world in which The Outer Worlds 2 ends up being eight times the game that earned Obsidian its legendary status in the first place. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.