It"s barely been one week since Obsidian Entertainment announced that the Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds was planned for release on March 6, but those plans have already changed. Today, the company announced that due to the coronavirus outbreak that has spread internationally, the release of the Switch port will have to be postponed.
The studio behind the port, Virtuos, has closed its offices due to the outbreak, but Obsidian assured fans that the team is healthy. The delay seems to be more out of precaution. The impact of coronavirus in the tech world has been quite noticeable, with LG and ZTE backing out of their presence at MWC in Barcelona, and Nintendo also warning the Switch production is suffering delays because of it.
There is something of a silver lining to this news, though, because Obsidian has apparently gone back on its decision to release the physical version of the game as a download code. When the title hits retail shelves, it will be inside a game cartridge, so collectors can rejoice. It"s still possible that certain game content will need to be downloaded separately though, something other Nintendo Switch titles have done.