The Outsider (video game)

The Outsider was an action-adventure game for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by Frontier Developments. It was announced in 2005 and cancelled in 2011.

The Outsider
Developer(s)Frontier Developments
Designer(s)David Braben
Platform(s)Windows,[1] PlayStation 3, Xbox 360[2]
ReleaseCancelled[3]
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Premise

The Outsider was set in a city based on Washington, D.C. and its surrounding areas, including the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Joint Base Andrews, and Newport News Shipbuilding. The player controlled a CIA intelligence officer, Jameson, who can use various hand-to-hand combat styles and weapons. The game's opening sequence depicts the character wrongly becoming a fugitive, and leaves the player to decide how to continue.[2]

Development

Frontier Developments claimed that the game would abandon the traditional, prescriptive, mostly linear story of current generation games, and replaced it by simulating characters’ motivations and aims. This gave the player genuine freedom to change the story outcomes, with each player having a unique experience rather than simply switching between good or evil’.[4] Director David Braben said that this level of freedom would demonstrate what it is to be a "next-gen" video game.[5] A new animation system was being developed with the aim of giving a more realistic feel as it is adaptive and less scripted than typical animations.[6]

After six years of development, The Outsider was dropped in January 2011 by publisher Codemasters, leading to nearly 30 staff layoffs. Braben confirmed that development had ceased.[7] In 2014, Braben told Eurogamer that The Outsider was probably "gone for good".[8]

gollark: I blame DNS.
gollark: Okay, the osmarks.tk server cluster™ has power and internet connectivity again. It may not come up properly because my configuration is awful. Please report any issues.
gollark: To be honest it would make sense to add a "server offline" indicator somewhere.
gollark: I mean, I'm happy that it works properly, at least.
gollark: That's the local caching at work. The server is definitely off.

References
  1. "Interview with David Braben, Producer of LostWinds and Creator of the Elite Series". Diehard GameFAN. 11 June 2008. Retrieved 11 June 2008.
  2. "Frontier announces "The Outsider", its first 'next generation' project" (Press release). Frontier Developments. 16 September 2005. Retrieved 25 September 2007.
  3. "Exclusive: Frontier's The Outsider Cancelled?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  4. Houlihan, John (23 September 2005). "Xbox Interviews: David Braben - The Outsider". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 25 September 2007.
  5. "Game Theory Episode 21 - Elite". 21 August 2007. Archived from the original (mp3) on 2 September 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
  6. Waters, Darren (9 August 2007). "What exactly is a next generation game?". BBC News. Retrieved 25 September 2007.
  7. "The Outsider 'not cancelled' | Game Development | News by Develop". Develop-online.net. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  8. "David Braben says The Outsider "probably is gone for good"". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 25 October 2018.


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