The Outer Worlds has a release date for Nintendo Switch… but not everyone is happy

If you’ve been holding out for a portable version of last year’s excellent Obsidian RPG, The Outer Worlds, then we finally have a release date for you. 

Publisher Private Division has announced that the Nintendo Switch version will go on sale on Friday March 6. “Get ready to play the award-winning RPG on-the-go soon,” the company tweeted.

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You’d expect this to be a source of great celebration, but the box art has upset quite a few fans thanks to seven little words: “full game download – game card not included.” Whether this is an exercise in cost saving, or the game was too big to fit on a cartridge is unclear, but the result is the same: collectors are deeply unhappy.

“That’s $60 I won’t have to worry about spending this March,” tweeted one. “Come back when you have a proper physical release.”

If Twitter sentiment is anything to go by, this isn’t the only sale the company will have missed out on. “Was looking forward to adding this with my physical collection but nope,” tweeted another. “If you want to release digital only, that’s fine. But don’t waste a plastic case just to give us a code on a piece of paper.” 

The majority of responses to the tweet seem to echo this feeling, and it’s a pity that the company has seemingly alienated so many potential buyers, because The Outer Worlds is a brilliant RPG in the spirit of the Fallout series, only in space and with more laughs. As Ryan wrote in our review: “The Outer Worlds is the Bethesda RPG you always wanted – it just so happens to be made by an entirely different developer.”

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“This sci-fi adventure is one of the best RPG examples of a choose-your-own adventure, allowing you to take the steering wheel for both the storyline and how you tackle each objective.”

Hopefully the game being a download-only title will be the only concession Obsidian has had to make on a Switch port, but we’ll see when March rolls around.

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