There's not much time left to wait for Obsidian's upcoming sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds – which is landing on October 25, 2019 – but thanks to job listings post on LinkedIn, thoughts are already turning to what the studio are making next. As spotted by the good folks over at PCGamer, the listing is hiring for a variety of positions including a network programmer, gameplay programmer, and lead narrative designer for what the listing describes as Obsidian’s "next great multi-platform RPG."
The job description for each listing gives us quite a bit of insight into the direction the RPG could be going in. The network programmer job description, for example, suggests the new project from the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords is making an online RPG with multiplayer features. "Obsidian is looking for experienced programmers to develop network and multiplayer gameplay systems using the Unreal Engine," the post states.
The call for a combat designer also reveals the studio is looking for someone with "proven experience developing first-person melee combat gameplay," who will "collaboratively plan and create fun, visceral, and epic combat including the main character, AI characters, and gameplay objects across varied encounter types."
Not that long ago, Head of Xbox's Matt Booty said in an interview that Microsoft believes The Outer Worlds will be an "enduring franchise," and even hinted that it could get an Xbox exclusive sequel. While the job description for lead narrative designer mentions "multi-platform," other job listings refer to a "high-profile RPG." Whether these job listings are for separate projects is unclear, but it’s likely that they are hiring for the same project, so this could mean it's an entirely new IP.
Whatever this new RPG may be, it's exciting to know the studio – which was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018 as the company starts to look towards Xbox Project Scarlett – is working on a new RPG for multiple platforms.
Check out our preview of The Outer Worlds and find out why it's the "best RPG Bethesda never made."
