Developer Obsidian Entertainment is pushing the boundaries of its upcoming release as The Outer Worlds will become the first ever unreleased Twitch Plays title in history later today when the game streams days ahead of its launch. Twitch Plays first rose to prominence during Twitch Plays Pokemon, an event that was so popular it spawned dozens of memes that persisted for months after the event and led to several other games getting the same treatment on the streaming platform later.
Most of the games that Twitch Plays deals with aren't quite as open-ended as The Outer Wilds, however. While Pokemon took ages to complete thanks to Twitch consistently navigating the protagonist in the wrong direction, the gimmick has since been used to great effect across a wide variety of genres. For those unfamiliar, Twitch Plays gives viewers the power to make decisions about the game by typing commands in to Twitch chat, which a bot will then input for the game. The result is often a gigantic mess even for more restrictive games, but for RPGs that are choice-driven, it's likely to result in complete chaos - something that Obsidian has already been leaning into with The Outer Worlds' marketing campaign.
Obsidian revealed earlier today that The Outer Worlds will be a Twitch Plays pre-release title, with the stream in question beginning at 6pm EST today, October 22, 2019. The Outer Worlds doesn't come out for another three days, however, so it's interesting to see the developer willing to put out a full playthrough of the game so far in advance of its official launch date. With that said, though, Twitch Plays is the furthest thing from an efficient playthrough machine, and with a deep RPG that has a lot of choice-driven narrative to explore, it's entirely possible that Twitch Plays fails to make much headway before the title actually releases.
Still, it's a first-time for Twitch Plays pre-releases, especially for major releases. It will be interesting to see how the community responds, especially because The Outer Worlds reviews are already praising the game's story and wit. While getting a sneak peek at the game and getting to join in on the chaos is fun, many fans might be concerned over potential spoilers they'd like to avoid until the embark on their own playthrough.
For Obsidian and The Outer Worlds, though, it's hard to imagine a better marketing conceit for a game that's so eager to embrace anarchy. Those interested can check out the stream on Obsidian's official Twitch channel later today and watch as the world's first Twitch Plays pre-release begins.
The Outer Worlds releases on October 25, 2019, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.