Obsidian is about to make it a monster year for RPGs, with The Outer Worlds 2 coming later in 2025 after Avowed

In a trailer at this year's Game Awards, Obsidian not only showed off the first gameplay footage of The Outer Worlds 2, it also revealed that the game will release sometime in 2025, meaning that the studio now has two full-fat RPGs coming in the next 12 months given that Avowed drops in February.

The trailer begins with a great gag about Obsidian getting its start making (in my opinion even better) sequels to other studios' great RPGs: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and "Fallout 3 (part 2)," aka Fallout: New Vegas. We didn't get a ton of specifics, but the trailer did assert that The Outer Worlds 2 will be "twice as big" even though development took "three times as long."

It definitely looks like the original game with a generational graphical leap, but there are also some artistic flourishes and gameplay snippets that got me excited. There's this desert planet with a gorgeous blue and red skybox that I can't wait to spend some time on, as well as some utterly, lavishly decadent and baroque interiors that put the first game's rich guy planet of Byzantium to shame.

What was shown of the combat definitely looked crispier and more action-y than the original game. But what really got my attention was some stealth gameplay demonstrating both brutal new takedown kills, as well as some kind of gnarly predator vision. The Outer Worlds had some surprisingly good social stealth based around disguises alongside classico Bethesda-style crouch walky sneak attacking, and I'm eager to see Obsidian build on these systems.

There's no way this bad boy is coming before Avowed on February 18, and my money would be on The Outer Worlds 2 arriving in time for the end of year, fall-winter game release sprint we're just seeing the tail end of right now. That means we're going into a year bookended by bigass Obsidian first person questers, a prospect that brings joy even to my crusty old heart, and it marks the third bonanza year in a row for RPG fans.