The Outer Worlds 2 will solve a mysterious problem Fallout’s creator has struggled with for nearly 30 years

The Outer Worlds 2 is seemingly going to solve a design problem that the creator of the Fallout series himself has been struggling to solve for nearly 30 years.

Tim Cain, who you might know as one of the masterminds behind Bethesda's Fallout series, doesn't really do game development anymore: he's semi-retired, but still helps out with consulting on games like The Outer Worlds 2. In a new interview with RockPaperShotgun, Cain had quite the tease about an element of The Outer Worlds 2, which he saw for himself while playing through the game.

One Obsidian developer has apparently "figured out" a solution to a problem Cain has encountered in games since his work on the original Fallout in 1995. "I not only told him how impressed I was, I found my notes from 28 years before," Cain said, revealing that he even dug out notes from a production meeting in 1995 to recall his work trying to solve the problem.

What is this problem, you ask? Cain isn't saying, primarily because he can't reveal too much about The Outer Worlds 2 right now. "There’s stuff they're trying to do in the sequel, that of course I can't talk about, that I get pulled in on because it's similar to stuff I've done in the past," the veteran developer says of his time working on Obsidian's new game.

Sometimes Cain will outline "pitfalls" that Obsidian has to potentially work around in its sequel. In this one instance though, Cain apparently didn't even have to tell Obsidian how to resolve a problem, because one developer at the studio had figured it out already. This only makes the wait for Obsidian's RPG sequel a lot harder to take.

We still don't know much about The Outer Worlds 2, including when it'll launch, and if it'll bring back any of its brilliant companion characters. Last year though, Obsidian studio head Josh Sawyer said small games could really help big AAA studios with their games - like how the studio's Medieval caper Pentiment has fed into The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed. 

You can head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look at some of the titles coming our way before Obsidian's RPG sequel.