The Outer Worlds takes place in an alternate timeline that diverged in the early 20th century, imagining what might've happened had the US president William McKinley not been assassinated. The answer? Without Theodore Roosevelt succeeding him, large business trusts weren't split apart, strengthening the same megacorporations that would eventually colonise (and monopolise) space by littering terraformed planets with unsightly corporate towns.
It's a bleak vision of what should have been humanity's great foray into space, a dream stifled by opportunists left unchecked. So, when developer Obsidian was bought out by a real megacorporation, Microsoft, many were quick to point out the irony of a trillion-dollar company profiting off a satirical critique on the excesses of capitalism.
"The Outer Worlds 1 was originally conceived and made before we were even purchased by Microsoft," game director Brandon Adler said in an interview with GamesRadar+. "But, I mean, it'd be ridiculous to say that we don't notice that. We obviously do.
"We think it's funny, and we kind of play into it. You even see it, sometimes, in our trailers and things like that. We poke fun at that, we get a little wink and nod, we realise that whole situation....
