Update: Despite previous reports, The Outer Worlds is enhanced on PS4 Pro after all. According to a Twitter message from publisher Private Division, the title upscales to 4K from 1440p on Sony's supercharged system. Here's what the organisation had to say:
Original Story: The Outer Worlds will still release on the PlayStation 4, despite Microsoft’s acquisition of developer Obsidian – but it’ll apparently do so without any bells and whistles. A report on Windows Central – supposedly citing a spokesperson from publisher Private Division – reveals that while the title will run at 4K on the Xbox One X, there’ll be zero enhancements for PS4 Pro owners to look forward to.
This is, as far as we understand it, unprecedented. While there are usually differences between the performance of Sony and Microsoft’s supercharged systems, both devices typically get attention. It’s possible that Xbox’s ownership of the Irvine-based developer has affected things; the release will also be “free” with Game Pass, while PlayStation owners will have to purchase it at full-price.
Perhaps, prior to the buyout, the studio didn’t plan to support either of the mid-gen machines, but since being acquired it opted to put in the extra effort for the Xbox One X specifically. If that’s the case, we suppose it’s possible that support for the PS4 Pro may be patched in down the line. Whatever the reason, we have review code now, so we’ll investigate and share any additional information we can.
[source windowscentral.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 112
I am sure there was another game that only runs at 1080p on Pro whilst the Xbox does have an enhanced mode on X. I didn't think that the games was being published by MS and we don't know whether MS has given support to Obsidian to enhance it prior to release.
Like you say, it maybe that priority was given to X in terms if pre-release optimisation for enhance performance on the iterative hardware and Pro support could come after launch. Another aspect may well be access to a Pro dev Kit to be able to offer enhanced performance.
There could be various reasons that maybe at play here so its not wise to jump to conclusions just yet...
Probably going to save some money and check it out on Game Pass for PC.
What Ever The Reason Is This Is Just Going To Piss People Off
Not having HDR was a bad move.
I don't have to get upset, I just have to not buy it. There is no lack of titles to buy on PS4 without this trash practice. Thanks Sammy for saving me the money and headache of the games some devs play with consumers.
Well guess I aint buying it then.
This isn't the first time. There have been other games which were released from bought studios but with no pro support (despite having support for the X). I can't go into too much detail (as I'm not sure how much I can say), but let's just say that the devs can't touch any PS4 code anymore. The publishers had to find third parties to maintain and port updates and DLC because MS refuses to let the devs, they now own, finish the game on the ps4
@RogerRoger can't comment on Outer Worlds but I've heard from a few sources about We Happy Few and can confirm that the buyout impacted the fact there's no pro support among other things.
@Turniplord You’re welcome to email me on sammy at pushsquare dot com if you’d like to share more. 🤔
Of course the buyout is a factor here. Microsoft is trying to sell game pass on the back of its biggest portfolio of self developed games.
Forza, Halo, Gears and now (kinda) Outer Worlds. If I was Bill Gates I would be telling Obsidian to nurf the PS version to look like a ps3 game tbh. Its disappointing but business is business.
There are a lot of great games to buy in October and November.
Why do people still want to buy a 90's tra*h game that support microsoft studios?
Wow, that sucks if true...
Guess there's always Boost Mode.
If Pro support is withheld, we should boycott this game on launch.
If they won't optimize for Sony hardware, then we can wait for a sale.
@BAMozzy didnt CDPR try and pull this with the Witcher 3, until the uproar was massive and they did a u-turn over improving the game for the pro?
ooooohhh... MS is soooo salty!!
Whatever the reasons, it isn’t Obsidian’s fault. Boycotting the game is just gonna make them into another Rareware and isn’t fair on the staff or you, the gamer, for missing out on a game that could be brilliant.
I just realized something.... Maybe... Since obsidian is now ms owned does that mean that any fallout game they create may never make it to ps???
@Gmork___ Bethesda Would Never Let That Happen
@nessisonett
It isn't fair to people who have a Pro, either.
Ultimately it's the consumer's choice if they want to support this or not, and absolving Obsidian of all blame seems to be unfair as well.
Don't forget they are 1 year Epic Exclusive as well.
Do they not have any choice?
Seems very convenient.
There are a lot of other games to play, and a brilliant game is still brilliant at a steep discount.
It's a bad idea to get Obsidian games on console anyway, thanks to all the bugs.
as expected ur not gonna complain about it
but if sony did the same thing,
it will be blown out of proportion
If the game isn't optimized for my console (Pro), I'm waiting.
Why would I blow $60 on a game that provides minimum polish?
If they half-ass it, then I can sleep on this till the game is heavily discounted.
We're not getting the second game anyway, there's nothing to support.
@nessisonett that is fair. That's how capitalism works. Sends a message to developers.
I’ll play it on gamepass pc since I already subbed for 2 years. I kind of regret it though since xbox pc store is cr*p and now it seems I don’t enjoy playing on pc. I should just subs for 1 year and save $60 for eshop or psn money.
Its these sorta things that (to me at least), expose what a hypocrite Phil Spencer is. Publicly he's portrayed as a "one of us" or "gamer",given PR friendly fluff pieces on "gaming for everyone" & "i hate 3rd party exclusives". Yet, he'd bought exclusives like tomb raider, minecraft cross play shoved in needing a M$/live account etc. Am i saying the likes of jim ryan is likeable & nice guy in comparison? No, just don't publicly prattle a nice guy image whilst showing your true colours behind the scene with scenarios such as this.
@Robocod I'd call that a bit of a reach. If the port itself is good, I see no obligation to support the Pro. Not even all first party or exclusive games do.
Besides, the game has exclusivity issues on PC way before the Microsoft buyout.
It'll still sell 3x the amount than on Xbox because gamers know 4k isn't a selling point in the grand scheme of things. As for Gamepass, it's an anti-consumer service, and even though the quotes indicate appropriately here, nothing on it is free. You will never get the value from a streaming service for games that you think you're getting. All you're doing is overpaying, at least if you keep the service active for longer than a month.
It wouldn't be that much of an enhancement anyway. Pushing from 30fps to 36fps, big difference.
@BAMozzy I can think of a couple of games like that this year such as Bloodstained and Dirt Rally 2.0 with both being1080p on Pro and 4K on X without any involvement from Microsoft. Who knows what the real reason is. Even if I didn't have an X I wouldn't be cancelling my order based upon this, I'd be disappointed but the quality of the game is the most important thing.
I'll be getting this on X anyway as part of my Gamepass subscription which is great value despite what @Nintyfan thinks, its £8 a month and just under £100 a year (without offers). For that £100 this year I've played Gears 5, Devil May Cry 5, Metro Exodus, soon to be Outer Worlds, Bloodstained, Dead Cells, Dirt Rally 2.0 plus quite a few other indies and older AAA stuff I didn't buy first time round. I suspect that lot would have cost me significantly more any other way but I'm open to suggestions if you know of a cheaper way to play them
@Nintyfan
How are you overpaying?
The service is $10 a month or $120 a year, and most games retail for $60.
Also, Gamepass isn't streaming. You download the games!
Even on PSNow there are quite a few great games available for download! (PSNow is even cheaper at $60!)
It's not free, but it never sells itself as free! It's $10 a month for hundreds of games ... Hahaha
That's just.... That isn't anti-consumer! That's a good business model! A reasonable price for a valuable service using an unlimited commodity available to the masses is genius. It's mutually beneficial for consumers and the business!
Guess I'll be getting in on Switch then
@Splat thats the easy part of gamepass i have noticed.
Just to check if the games are any good i just can delete them without ever having to buy them.
Got the xbox one verry cheap.
Rather spend 50 a year on gamepass then 50 bucks per game if the game is really bad which xbox has many of.
State of decay
Gears 5
Crackdown 3.
Only game that was good was sea of thieves (after a year of updates).
@BrettAwesome people looking seriously forward to that.
Still can't believe that.
Like witcher 3
Yooka-Tooie did this too.
@themcnoisy Bill has no leading roll at MS anymore.
@Adam47 Why should Obsidian suffer because of Microsoft's (we assume) decision? These devs put hard work into it, before Microsoft ever bought the rights.
No problem i have a backlog so when it releases i can wait a few months and get it for €20/30. Still funny how a select few keep talking about anticonsumer Sony and tell us too keep calm when MS pulls one. 😉 👍
I thought ot was a mandatory prerequisite that ALL future PS4 games were to have a Pro mode.
Could just be that they weren't originally planning on enhancements for PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, but got extra money from Microsoft to do the X enhancements.
@The_ghostmen
Why not? Handheld gaming on Switch is super cool. It's such a plus to me, that I can have these big budget gaming experiences on the go. The screen is just big enough to never feel small, colour reproduction is good too. I love my PS4pro, I really do. But I am so happy with my Switch too
@Constable_What lol try playing those Downloaded games if you miss a payment, or if MS/Sony decides to remove it.Nothing about game pass is beneficial to a employed person/adult. Gamespass is only benifical to a child or a "casual".
Well I guess that’s just saved me £50.
@Nintyfan Game Pass anti consumer ?? wtf, plus its not a streaming service you download and install all the games on Game Pass.
don't have a Pro or a X so it make little difference to me
still i don't get why people here are complaining about this while at the same time laughing because Modern Warfare has a game mode exclusive to PS4 for a year
double standards much
@FullbringIchigo It’s only a “double standard” if you can prove the same people laughing about Call of Duty are the ones complaining about this. And for the record, I think both are garbage practices.
@FullbringIchigo
Purposely releasing a not optimized version of a multiplatform game on the platform of the competitor just for the sake of console exclusivity and not because of technical limitations is 1000 times more f'ed up than exclusive DLC! (And for the record, I think both are bad ideas.)
If this is becoming the new trend in the console wars then i will boycot all developers who do these kind of practises.
If you're a gamer you need to be against this before this escalates and becomes the norm. Today it's Sony who draws the short endof the stick, tomorrow it's Microsoft. In the end it doesn't matter which console you own, we all lose!
Be smart and vote with your wallet.
@RustyBullet yes Game Pass is anti consumer, only the blind will think otherwise. giving you games access to hundreds of games that cost millions to make, and you only pay $10 a month. to not think there will be a catch down the road is gullible, and that catch is gonna cost you a lot.
@Katon they are both crappy i agree
and i was mainly on about the fanboys, you know the ones who lord over when they get something but complain when the other side gets something they don't
@ThaBEN really you think the game not running at as high a frame rate and/or resolution is worse than an entire game mode being missing?
you can still play the game and all it's content even if it's not running in 4K but to have an entire game mode unavailable is a LOT worse in my book but both are still really terrible and need to be stopped
@ThaBEN one thing we have seen when it comes to 'gamers' is that there is a lot of stupid. you remember the spectacle over the horse armour that was 10 years ago, and go look at how far it have gone with monetizing in fifa,nba etc. so i have no hope that these so called 'gamers' of today will go against this before it escalates and becomes the norm.
The amount of dummies being spat out in these comments over a slight upgrade in resolution is crazy.
This site makes me laugh. Sony do similar all the time and it’s lauded here as great business and needed...
Microsoft do it and it’s trashy.
I’m all for Microsoft not laying down and letting Sony do what it likes. Competition is good. Especially for the consumers. Only people this hurts are the one console fanboys and nobody likes those guys.
I expect the next gen to be massive for both trying to raise the bar. Which is a good thing. If MS had of given up Sony would have got lazy and ps5 is shaping up to be epic. We all want that right?
@sanderson72 a bit dramatic, most gamers on either platform are on the base consoles anyway, oh and Rare are doing just fine with Sea of Thieves
@ApostateMage
It's not about the fact that it's missing. It's about the fact that it's missing because they received a big bag of money from the competitor and not due to technical limitations on said console.
We bought a premium PS4 Pro console or XBOX One X to have better performance than the launch versions of those consoles.
This situation is the same as going to the IMAX 3D theatre only to find out that the movie is shown in 2D and not in the IMAX aspect ratio at all.
I would be equally outraged if Sony would pay Ubisoft to release the next Assassins Creed game with exclusive PS4 Pro Support and the XBOX One X will get the exact same performance as on the launch XBOX One.
It's amazing to see how many people are blind to the fact that we as gamers (no matter what console you own) are the ones getting screwed in the end with these exclusive deals.
Maybe it's me just getting old. I remember the times where you bought a complete game without any microtransactions, day one patches, season passes and exclusive content.
@Stocksy
Healthy competition is about making a better technical product for your customers than your competitor. It's not about paying money to cripple the competitors version of a product.
@ThaBEN i remember those times too and i 100% agree with you, i just think that this while still a bad practise isn't as bad as some of the other crap publishers are pulling now a days, a game can still be played and be good even if it's not running in 4K
yes we do need to stamp this kind of thing out before it gets going but i also think right now we need to concentrate more on getting lootboxes and their problems sorted or game modes and DLC being locked to a certain console or even a certain retailer because these things actually have a huge impact on the game your playing where as one system having a higher resolution isn't as big of an issue
At the end of the day if this bothers you then don't buy the game.
I can't say I was interested in this game anyway nor do I have a Pro but for those that are and do then I feel for you. It's a tough choice. You know you're getting an inferior version and paying the exact same.
It sucks.
@TheBuzz I would class myself as a hardcore gamer, I own PS4, Xbox One X and a pretty good Rig. I have over 600 games installed on my X and arround 100 on the PS4 and god knows how many on PC. Sorry, but calling Game Pass or even PS Now anti consumer is laughable, Its an option just like Netflix and Spotify. Why you think there is going to be a sting in its tale I cant see why you would think this. We as the consumers are getting a great deal of content and access to some games thet we probably wouldent normally look at. I for one know that i am getting my moneys worth from the service.
@PcTV All first party games support the Pro since it released so stop making excuses.
@Sekys They chose to sell to M$ though.
@RustyBullet Yes but look at TV streaming services and it's starting to look quite costly at least if you want the option to watch as much content as possible.
Netflix, Prime, Disney+, in the States there are others and probably more on the horizon. Something's got to give, no?
I don't know why but I'm not a fan of streaming in gaming. I prefer to just buy the games I want to play and be safe in the knowledge that I can play them at any point in the near future, that nobody can just take it away at some point.
I don't know, maybe just getting old!
@Stocksy What competition? Making quality games that people actually buy is competition. Sony does not do anything like this since they do not own any companies that are releasing games on other platforms. You are talking out of your a$$ here.
@FullbringIchigo Those two have zero to do with each other but then people complaining about a game mode should have the same energy here. Game quality is far more important than a mode anyway. It effects the entire game but people love to change the facts.
@Col_McCafferty Yea, but this is personal preference, not anti consumer do you not agree ? Some people class me as too old to game, I have been gaming since pong and I will probably game well in to my over the hill age, I am 45 and I still love this industry just as much now. My dad was still gaming on his PlayStation until around a year before cancer put an end to it. People have branded me a fan boy before, which I definitely am not. I love the games not the box as much. If someone offers me an easy way to play more games (and as long as I have the time) I will take it.
I don't have a Pro so this doesn't effect me but yeah this is pretty bad for Pro owners, the whole point of having one is that you will get a better experience then the base console
@Neolit Reads okay to me? If the game is 4K on Xbox One X, then I'd expect it to be higher than 1080p on PS4 Pro.
While this is certainly disappointing for Sony fans, there is some history of games receiving Pro enhancements and not any Xbox One X enhancements - albeit legacy titles via post-release patches and not newly developed titles (regardless, there are games out there where the Pro is the only way to get visual/performance enhancements).
People can call foul all they want and say that Obsidian bowed down to Microsoft throwing money at the company for exclusive features, but Microsoft does own Obsidian. Microsoft (rightfully) wants to promote the Xbox platform. Microsoft paid for Xbox One X enhancements - not to mention the entire company.
EDIT: On the flip-side, Microsoft is not the publisher of Outer Worlds. It is possible that Xbox One X enhancements became the priority for release thanks to the Microsoft acquisition and PS4 Pro enhancements are coming down the line at the expense of the publisher.
That still doesn't change the fact that Microsoft does own Obsidian and has some say in it's development efforts, now.
Probably an MS decision. Petty
Who needs this we have death stranding and tlou2 to look for forward to the. Outer worlds will be fun I'm sure but my fallout days are gone. I may pick this up when I've blasted through modern warfare and I've still got a huge collection of games to finish. So yeah I'm not to botherd buy this and full bluray will be fine anyways as its animated yeah fps may dip compared to the xbox. But really who cares.
@RoyalGuard
It's the same thing as PSPlus or anything else.
I think the only child here is you, you seem to have a lot of disposal money to waste on what could be potentially trash. Haha
I have rent, a car payment, and a girlfriend. Not to mention a full time job, so I'm capped for time.
Some things are more important than video games, friendo.
You'll learn that when you grow up. :3
I just dislike what appears, at first blush, to be a very passive-aggressive business decision. They'll give us Outer Worlds but only the boilerplate experience. Want 4K or improved framerates? Want HDR? Buy Game Pass or an XBox One X today!
I'd rather they stop dangling a baby carrot and just make it exclusive to Windows and XBox.
That's a shame, I was going to buy this as well.
It wasn't really a game I was excited about anyways, but still a big bummer depending on how it runs. As long as it's stable 1080p/60fps, enhancement shouldn't matter much.
Still getting it as I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that its not a buggy mess and at least runs smoothly!
If they are going to be petty like this, it’s certainly not a game I need in my life. Plenty of other games to buy.
You're all gushing over new consoles while still competing on the current ones...
Yous kids is never happy unless yous fighin' over summit.
I'm getting Stadia in a month. You'll all have egg on your faces if streaming ends up being the preferable option to 1k in earnings down the pan next year.
This is certainly odd, but not completely surprising. During The Outer Worlds’ development, the studio was acquired by Microsoft to join its growing Xbox Game Studios label. It’s possible this relationship allowed the developer to enhance the game for Xbox One X, where it would not have received upgrades on either console otherwise.
Obsidian is a relatively small studio, after all, and even something like offering these enhancements would have taken up precious development time the then-independent studio would want to spend developing the game.
@GodGamer I suppose you could say they may not have known this would have occurred when signing with Microsoft, or maybe not.
It's semantics, but you could say the actual developers in Obsidian just made the game, but the 'higher-ups' made the decision
All that matters is if the game is good. 4K wont make the game less fun, but freezing/crashing will. New Vegas was plagued by game wide performance problems that the devs were incapable of fixing. Will be pretty damn embarassing if this game doesnt run smoothly with PS4 Pro's extra power fully freed up.
@purpaturta brings up an interesting point. Obsidian have enough trouble with performance. They arent Naughty Dog. They dont know how to effectively develope for hardware. I have enough doubts in Obsidian's performance without them trying to hang with the big dogs. It's for the best that they dont strain themselves.
@Rick_Deckard where have u been haha? So many people said Pro wouldnt run native 4K. It was super annoying. Then Sony released games in native 4K (no checkerboard rendering) so people started shutting up.
At this point I only remember a few native 4K games.. Last of Us, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online.. but there were plenty when I was following it a year or 2 ago. You wouldnt know the difference between checkerboard/native unless u you look it up tho so I have no idea which of my games are running natively.. Shadow of Mordor may be native
I’ll plan on getting it for ps4 just to stick it to outrage culture.
MS deserves a decent exclusive anyway. Even if it’s just graphical support
@Constable_What first of all I am not or never will be a "friendo". All I heard was alot of excuses. A girlfriend? Lol I'm the one that's a child? and you claiming a "girlfriend" as a tax write off. I have a wife and several kids probably about Your age and a mortgage. Your no where near on my level from a common sense stand point so I'm gonna leave you to your thoughts lol. I don't banter with people with low intelligence.
@RoyalGuard
Yeah, I'm sure.
Go play with your Minecraft wife now, kiddo.
I'm sure she's waiting for you! Hahahaha
She's got somethin' for that butthurt you're feelin'!
How's that for banter?
You can give it, but you can't take it it seems, friendo.
Just buy the game once it is dirt cheap, as there is no shortage of good game's. And by then you'll get all the DLC with it too.
While this is unfortunate it may not be as bad as it seems. Obsidian could have very well not had plans to enhance this game on the Pro or 1X, it takes extra resources.
None of their other games release on PS4 or Xbox have gotten the Pro and X treatment.
Microsoft pushes their inhouse developers hard on making games look better on the 1X.
It makes since that after they purchased Obsidian last year, they would do whatever it took for them to enhance the game on their platform.
Now it could be more nefarious than that, which would be a shame but it shouldn't make or break the game for anyone. There have been other games this has happened with for various reasons.
Hope for a post release patch. I'm sure the game will still look just fine regardless. If you want to pass on it, that's your prerogative but I wouldn't pass up on a game I am excited play because of something like this.
That said, let the developers know you want this enhanced on PS4 as well, at least they will know their is a vocal desire for it.
Funny how a majority of the people dissing this practice were not as vocal about it on the Call of duty exclusivity article. Hypocrites much 😏😏😏
gimp the system it would have sold the most on makes perfect sense 🤦♀️if that was the way that MS wanted to play it just pull the game because this is petty.
@XoTruthHurtZoX MS were the ones who created that business model in truth so... maybe you are too young to know that.
patching a game & DLC is 2 completely different topics
Ha to young, i remember the the days when pro evo and gta were exclusive to the playstation 2 or are you to young to remember that. The problem with this practice is people only seem to care when its done by the competition and except it when it benefits their platform of choice. But you keep those blinkers on
@David187 yeah like locking out content on other platforms isn't petty.
4K? What a waste at the expense of frame rate performance on either console. If I want to play this at 4K, that's what my PC is for, plus more stable performance with frame rates.
Pre-order uncanceled!
Oh look at all those people who were jumping to conclusions and accusing Microsoft of all sorts and cancelling pre orders just to find out it wasn't even true 😂
So they say, who's to say they're telling the truth.
@Splat Not really saving money then, are you? Gamepass is a rip off as well as being an extremely anti-consumer service. Game streaming needs to be dropped and every single person supporting it is killing this hobby. If you get angry at that or feel the need to defend it, don't. Just remember that feeling in 5 years when everything has gone to sh*t and you're finally (yet far too late) realizing the negative impact you contributed towards.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you don’t leap to conclusions. I mean, upscaled is still worse than native 4K but... it is technically enhanced.
@carlos82 aren't those people reacting to a story this site put up? Push Square should have dug around a tad better before firing this off imo. you can't blame people for being pissed about it really. when a simple tweet would have worked.
@XoTruthHurtZoX you must have dementia then mate because I remember playing a GTA special edition on my Xbox & the Pro Evo games.
you used the word hypocrites when the truth is it suits you better
MS started all of this they kept GTA 4 DLC of playstation for a whole year! made COD exclusivity a thing! all that is happening is it has come full circle.
@XoTruthHurtZoX I have never said I agree with Exclusive DLC Im just pointing out your fake outrage on something MS pioneered.
Y'all can untwist your knickers now.
Gotta love video game reporting.
Meh, wait for sale.
Quick, cancel the pre-order cancel!
@David187 to be fair, i saw this story on numerous sites not just push square.
@David187 the story only said apparently and to be fair to Pushsquare a few other sites ran with it too but none had confirmation.
@GodGamer An excuse would imply I'm somehow responsible, I'm simply pointing out facts.
@RogerRoger You throwing a bin full of salt everywhere has clearly made the difference!
Oh that's alright then.
(Puts pitchfork away, gets wallet out again).
Windoze Central is updating 🤡
We have Modern Warfare and Death Stranding, and Switch got luigi's Mansion.
Let's face it. Who cares about the outer world this tr*sh game.
It's just another tr*sh game pass titles.
Got gamepass but still buying this on PS4 because trophies are life.
@Adam47
If it lives up to expectations then I care.. How can 🆈🅾🆄 compare call of duty to this? ⊙︿⊙ this 🅸🆂 based on role playing with different ending
@3MonthBeef
Tbh what I find funny is that he says Private Division 'threw him under a bus'.....by simply posting the facts on Twitter. Haha
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