For the past two years, I have confused the name Outer Wilds with The Outer Worlds. I will say one space game’s name when I mean the other. I will expand one name into ‘The Outer Wilds’ and trim the other to ‘Outer Worlds’. I will trip and combined the two into ‘Outer Woilds’. I hate this. AND NOW, Outer Wilds writer Kelsey Beachum has declared she wrote for the newly-announced The Outer Worlds DLC, Peril On Gorgon. This is too much. Beachum announced the good/terrible news on Twitter shortly after Obsidian revealed Gorgon during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase stream tonight. As the kids say, I shan’t even. These names are the bane of my career. I don’t blame Outer Wilds devs Mobius Digital, because they were first. It’s all the fault of Obsidian Entertainment, who announced–let me check I’ve got this right–The Outer Worlds years after the other one. Kelsey herself had previously tried to help people out of this linguistic hole with a mnemonic device, which is now useless: Earlier this year, after Obsidian hired her, she said “don’t worry, I am working on a clearer mnemonic. Possibly: ‘Obsidian’s the studio I wOrk for, and they made The Outer WOrlds’?” I hate this. I mean, I’m happy for her and her career. And Outer Wilds was our favourite game of 2019. But… all this. I am too delicate for this. From now on, nobody is ever allowed to correct me when I mix up the names, because it is no longer my fault. If this doesn’t kill me, Old World and New World will. Correction: This post originally said “Outer Wilds writer Kelsey Beachum has declared she wrote for the newly-announced The Outer Wilds DLC” and I swear to god that was not intentional. I hate this.
