It’s been confirmed that Xbox’s Halo Studios has provided its first-person-shooter expertise to Obsidian Entertainment during the development ofThe Outer Worlds 2. A sequel to 2019’s sci-fi RPG,The Outer Worlds 2is set for release on October 29 and will impressively be the third game Obsidian has released in 2025, following its fantasy RPGAvowedand the upcoming Xbox Game Preview release ofGrounded 2.
As is true of many of Obsidian’s RPGs,The Outer Worlds' writing, world building, companions, and RPG elements were all superb. However, the game was not without flaws, one of its biggest being its first-person gunplay. Many players believedThe Outer Worlds' weapons largely felt stiff, taking the wind out of the combat’s sails. This wasn’t surprising, as prior toThe Outer Worlds, Obsidian didn’t have much FPS experience outside ofFallout:New Vegas, which was largely built off ofBethesda’sFallout 3.
It seems that for the sequel, Obsidian wanted to strengthen its first-person shooting mechanics and to do that, it enlisted the help of Halo Studios, formerly known as 343 Industries, the team behind post-BungieHalogames likeHalo 4,Halo 5: Guardians, andHalo Infinite. In aninterview with The Guardian,The Outer Worlds 2game director Brandon Adler spoke about wanting to take a step up from its predecessor in making each of the sequel’s weapons feel satisfying to use, and also unique. Adler mentioned thatThe Outer Worlds 2features a ton of gunsas well as gun mods that can dramatically change how each weapon works, and the team wanted each one of them to stand apart from one another in addition to feeling right.
Halo Studios Helped Obsidian with Outer Worlds 2 Gunplay
Now that Xbox has gone out and acquired many different studios, including two publishers in Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, it’s interesting to see some of these teams collaborating and providing their expertise to improve elements of other Xbox studios' games during development. This was likely far from the first time this has happened under the Xbox umbrella, as it’s easy to imagineUnreal Engine 5 expert studio The Coalitionpotentially having lent a helping hand to Ninja Theory during development ofSenua’s Saga: Hellblade 2,for example. Halo Studios' collaboration with Obsidian likely wasn’t a costly one either, as Adler made it seem like theHaloteam simply chimed in with guidance without getting directly involved inThe Outer Worlds 2’s development.
While Obsidian is preparing its second and third game releases of 2025, Halo Studios is coming up on four years since having releasedHalo Infiniteas 343 Industries back in 2021. After being hit with devastating layoffs in 2023, pivoting to UE5, and undergoing a studio name change, Halo Studios has been through a lot recently, but rumors have been swirling about its comeback game being aremake of the originalHalo, which is reportedly aiming to release next year. Until then, FPS fans on Xbox haveThe Outer Worlds 2to look forward to this October.
