Outer Wilds studio finally confirms it's working on a new game but says it will be 'years' before it's ready to share details

Six years after the release of the most excellent sci-fi camping game Outer Wilds, developer Mobius Digital is working on something new, a fact it let slip in a recently-released update—which is also the final "major update" planned for the game.0.

It's unusual, you see, because typically when a studio begins work on a new game, and especially when it's following up on a big critical and commercial hit, there's noise about it: Game sites get a press release, an announcement goes out on social media, the dev team drops a teaser of some sort, all that sort of thing.

In this case, though, there was none of that. Instead, there was an off-the-cuff comment in the Outer Wilds' patch 16 changelog.

"This is a minor patch mainly for adding a couple folks to the credits and fixing two PC-only bugs: clicking out of the game disabling certain inputs (such as the key for the ship’s lock on), which affected streamers in particular, and diagonal movement being faster than normal with mouse and keyboard," the studio wrote, explaining that the patch would launch on Steam first and follow for other platforms later in May.

"Why stagger the releases like this? It’s to increase the chance that, if any bad bugs on Steam slipped through testing, they’ll get caught and fixed before the release of the other platforms. This is no shade to our QA testers, we’re just trying to be extra risk averse and conservative with the resources we put toward Outer Wilds since our new game is our priority!"

Lest there be any confusion, the studio repeated the statement at the end of the patch notes: "There are no more major updates planned for Outer Wilds or Echoes of the Eye because we are hard at work on our next game."

Now personally, I could not swear to you that this is the very first time a new game from Mobius Digital has ever been announced, but I believe it is. RPS says it is, for one thing (that's who tipped me off), and there also appears to be genuine surprise about the development on social media.

That's also where Mobius Digital warned that, even though the word is now out, people shouldn't expect to hear anything more about the new game anytime soon.

"It's gonna be a while, on the order of years, before we have any details to share about it," the studio wrote on X in response to one inquiry about the new project. "Good things take time."

(Image credit: Mobius Digital (Twitter))

The full patch notes for the latest Outer Wilds update, since that's what brought us here in the first place, are below.

Gameplay

• The Scout no longer clips through a planet and into space after being tossed into a certain black hole
  
• Leaving the Scout in certain volumes on an astral body no longer deorbits that astral body
  
• The player can no longer hold two items at once in a very specific situation in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Gabbro's technique can now be used to make the credits roll in more situations
  
• Fixed a peephole-related softlock in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Using Gabbro's technique just before your light source goes out no longer puts the player into an incorrect state in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Fix for raft lights remaining interactable after vanishing in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Certain stones can no longer be dropped on certain rocks (prevents them from floating after a sudden change in scenery)
  
• Fix for the Attlerock locator playing audio when only two of the three rings are aligned
  
• Certain items are now returned to their shelves when the player exits certain dark areas in Echoes of the Eye
  
• The Scout now correctly sticks to the ship's cockpit if the player flies into it while seated at the flight console
  
• Certain Nomai computers now deactivate when a charged platform is used
  
• Various fixes to collisions

Art & Visuals

• Slightly improved the resolution of the glow effect on a certain probe
  
• Removed a small blue square that could be seen floating in space in certain circumstances
  
• Dark Bramble fog lights are now visible while walking around the ship's cabin
  
• Fixed missing peephole eyelid animations in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Updated some images on a certain satellite
  
• Various fixes to missing or low resolution textures

UI

• Fix for the Scout HUD marker appearing when it shouldn't be visible in specific situations
  
• Fix for the UI of the Signalscope not appearing in some circumstances
  
• Fix for some button prompts covering up the pause menu
  
• Fix for the Lock-on UI not disappearing when a targeted meteor gets destroyed
  
• Various UI fixes

Text & Localization

• Fix to the Signalscope's "Unidentified Signal Nearby" prompt having a confusing meaning in Chinese
  
• The projection stone used at Brittle Hollow's north pole now displays correctly colored text
  
• A couple minor credits updates
  
• Various text and localization fixes

PC Only

• Diagonal movement is no longer faster when playing with mouse and keyboard
  
• Clicking out of the game (or otherwise changing window focus) no longer disables certain inputs, such as the ship's lock-on function

That’s the End of This Update

As mentioned before, there are no more major updates planned for Outer Wilds or Echoes of the Eye because we are hard at work on our next game. There may be smaller updates like this from time to time, but no guarantees. Nevertheless, always feel free to report issues or reach out for help on our support page.

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source https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/outer-wilds-studio-finally-confirms-its-working-on-a-new-game-but-says-it-will-be-years-before-its-ready-to-share-details/