Outer Wilds will be a timed Epic Games Store exclusive

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"Additional platforms coming later."

Space exploration game Outer Wilds will launch on the Epic Games Store and not Steam, developer Mobius Digital has confirmed.

We knew that the game would be on the Epic Games Store, but it wasn't clear whether its Steam release would be simultaneous. Now we know it will be on Epic's store first—Mobius Digital said that "additional platforms [are] coming later", although it didn't specify a time frame for the exclusivity.

"Rest assured that we read all of your comments and our goal is to bring the game to your preferred platform as quickly as possible," it said in an update to its Fig crowdfunding backers. Its partnership with Epic has "enabled us to make the game better and more accessible for everyone who will play it," it added.

Some backers are less than pleased: in the comments below the Fig update, one called the decision "deeply disappointing", adding that they would request a refund if the Steam release was delayed by more than a few months. Another commenter said that "deciding to deliberately give the middle finger to all backers by colluding with Epic is disgusting".

In the Outer Wilds, you explore a mysterious solar system, unraveling its secrets until you die, perhaps from a lack of oxygen, or perhaps at the hands of a strange monster. With each death, you return to your starting village, ready to do it all over again, and the world will change over time to ensure you have reason to return to areas you've already visited. Basically, "it's Groundhog Day, but with cool space shit", said Phil after his hands-on.

Outer Wilds—not to be confused with Obsidian's RPG The Outer Worlds, another Epic Games Store exclusive—doesn't yet have a release date, but it's due out this year. It was initially expected in 2018, but was delayed in December.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Samuel Horti
Samuel Horti

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.