Outer Wilds gets a release date surprise and launch trailer

If you've been looking forward to Outer Wilds, the next game from What Remains of Edith Finch publisher Annapurna Interactive, then you're in for some great news today. Annapurna and the game's developer, Mobius Digital, revealed the game's release date today. Even better than getting a release date is learning that it's right around the corner.Outer Wilds, it was revealed today, will be out before the calendar rolls over into June. Mobius has set a May 30th release date for the game, so it'll be here in a little over a week. When it arrives, it'll launch on PC and Xbox One, but there's a bit a caveat to go along with that.

Last week, it was revealed that Outer Wilds will be a timed exclusive for the Epic Games Store. Many other games have been announcing similar exclusivity deals lately, including the similarly-titled The Outer Worlds from Obsidian. We don't know how long Outer Wilds will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store, but judging from other exclusivity deals, it seems that six months is probably the best-case scenario. That would put its Steam release date in November, assuming the exclusivity deal isn't longer.

The biggest issue here is that the development of Outer Wilds was crowdfunded on Fig.io long before the Epic Games Store existed, so some of the people who helped it meet its funding goals are understandably upset by this news. A big developer like Gearbox might be able to shoulder the players who promise never to buy their game after learning of its exclusivity period, but for a smaller one like Mobius, this could be a fairly big risk.

We'll find out if Outer Wilds will sink or swim soon enough. The game's core concept, which has you exploring a solar system "stuck in an endless time loop," seems interesting enough, but there's a lot of vitriol associated with these Epic Store exclusivity deals at the moment. Will you be picking up Outer Wilds when it launches next week? Head down to the comments section and let us know!