Obsidian Entertainment has issued an apology to players who bought The Outer Worlds on PS4 or Xbox One expecting a free bump to Spacer’s Choice Edition, only to find the upgrade never landed in their library.
The studio admitted the rollout went sideways, blaming “entitlement restrictions and backend issues” on console storefronts. Anyone caught in the mess is being told to contact Obsidian support directly.
The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is the souped-up version of the 2019 sci-fi RPG, built for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It bundles the base game with both expansions, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos, plus visual upgrades, better lighting, a higher level cap, and performance improvements. For last-gen players, getting it for free sounded like a great deal.
The studio is specifically calling out players who bought the base game on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 between April 30–May 27. If you fall in that window, or you’re still having trouble claiming the upgrade, Obsidian wants you to reach out so they can “make it right.”
The root of the problem is how console stores handle digital ownership. PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, base game, DLC bundles, and special editions are all tracked as separate SKUs with their own entitlements. Granting a brand-new edition to owners of a last-gen base game requires Sony’s or Microsoft’s backend to support that exact conversion. When it doesn’t, developers are stuck handing out manual codes one at a time.
That’s apparently what’s happening here. Some players who contacted support say they’ve received codes that unlock Spacer’s Choice Edition and even fix DLC recognition for the original version. Whether every affected player gets the same fix isn’t clear, since Obsidian’s phrasing leaves room for case-by-case handling.
Why it got messy
The situation is tangled by the game’s history. The Outer Worlds was originally published by Private Division under Take-Two Interactive, while Obsidian itself was scooped up by Microsoft back in 2018. So you’ve got a Microsoft first-party studio dealing with a game it doesn’t fully publish, across two console ecosystems that handle entitlements differently. The Outer Worlds 2, meanwhile, is a proper Xbox Game Studios release, which is part of why the original is back in the spotlight.
PC players reportedly had a smoother time with the upgrade, since storefronts like Steam handle bundles and free upgrades through their own systems.
Affected players should head to support.obsidian.net to file a ticket with their platform, purchase date, and proof of ownership. One note from the trenches: the support form has been finicky in certain browsers, so if the contact button refuses to do anything, try switching browsers or disabling ad blockers.
