When The Outer Worlds 2 was first announced in 2021, its first trailer showed off a big creature that definitely wouldn't be in the game, a bunch of "pointless" slow motions shots, and a silhouette of the hero, because, as the narrator humorously declared, the developers at Obsidian hadn't finished the protagonist's design… or the story… or any gameplay that was ready to show. As game director Brandon Adler tells me, the team "really didn't have much of anything" at that time beyond "high-level" concepts for areas like Paradise Island, along with some early prototypes. So, with nothing else for it, the team decided to "have fun" and debut a very self-aware trailer that wasn't just, in the words of Adler, "total BS".
"I don't think people realized that it was going to be another four years after that before they were going to get it," Adler says, reflecting back on the announcement. "They probably thought that they'd get it in another year or two. But we tried to at least sugarcoat a little bit with how far out we are."
