The release date for the Nintendo Switch port of The Outer Worlds is being pushed back according to publisher Private Division. The news comes after Virtuos, the production company working on transposing the game to the Switch, had to close their office due to the coronavirus.
A statement posted on The Outer World’s website reads,
At this time, we will need to delay the Nintendo Switch port of The Outer Worlds. The offices of the Virtuos team have been closed due to the coronavirus, impacting the development. We do want to say that the team is healthy, but to allow them more time to finish development, we need to postpone the release date. We do not have a new release date at this time, but we will share that with you once we know more.”
The Shanghai, China-based company first opened its doors in 2004. Along with two other studios in Chengdu and Xi’an, it has other offices in Vietnam, Canada, France, Japan, Ireland, and the United States with its largest building located in Shanghai. In a follow-up tweet from The Outer World’s Twitter, the development team said,
To follow up: The Virtuos devs are healthy! Their office has just been closed for safety, so progress has halted for the time being. We’ll absolutely share more information as soon as we have it.”
We’re delaying @OuterWorlds on Nintendo Switch due to the coronavirus impacting the Virtuos team working on the port, to provide them enough time to finish development. We’ll now be releasing the physical version on cartridge. Once we have a new launch date, we’ll let you know!
— Private Division (@PrivateDivision) February 6, 2020
In the same statement, the team also said they are working on a physical edition of The Outer Worlds for the Switch.
We are happy to announce that a cartridge will now be included with the boxed version when the game does release, so those of you wishing to own a physical copy of the game will now be able to do so. Thank you all for reading, and we will continue to keep you all up to date with news as we learn more.”
The Outer Worlds was set to release on March 6, 2020.
