Obsidian Entertainment has apologized to players for issues with the free next-gen upgrade of The Outer Worlds to the Spacer’s Choice Edition on consoles. The studio attributed the situation to “ownership restrictions and backend issues.”
It all started in late April when the developers announced the removal of the original version of The Outer Worlds from digital stores. To smooth things over, Obsidian promised that anyone who purchased the base game on any platform by May 27 would receive the enhanced edition with all DLC for free.
This seemed like a generous gesture, especially considering that at the release of the Spacer’s Choice Edition in 2023, players were charged $10 for such an upgrade. Many users trusted the developers and specifically bought the old version on PS4 and Xbox One.
However, by the appointed time, the free update only worked as intended on PC via Steam. PlayStation and Xbox owners were left without the upgrade. Obsidian is now asking affected players who purchased the game between April 30 and May 27 to contact technical support directly: the studio promises to resolve the issue on an individual basis.
Such backend glitches during transitions to new console generations are becoming an unpleasant trend. Previously, Annapurna Interactive faced a similar situation with the cat adventure Stray: owners of the Nintendo Switch version encountered an inability to upgrade for free to the Switch 2 release.