The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition Saves Aren't Compatible With Original

A little over a week ago, publisher Private Division announced The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition, a current-gen update to the 2019 RPG. The update would do more than just provide better resolution, overhauled lighting, enhanced character models, and improved load times on current-gen consoles. It would also add a new dynamic weather system and increase the level cap.

Because of this, Private Division said Spacer's Choice Edition would not be a free upgrade, but owners of both the base Game and its two DLC would be able to purchase it for "a reduced price." However, most of us still kinda thought of it as an update rather than a totally new Game and that our save files would still work on Spacer's Choice Edition.

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Turns out, that's not the case. In response to a fan question on Twitter, Private Division confirmed that you'll have to restart the Game to play Spacer's Choice Edition.

"You will need to start a new save file to play Spacer's Choice Edition," Private Division wrote, "but you'll still be able to access the original Game and original files." Great that Spacer's Choice Edition isn't deleting the original Game, but it sure seems like it's not an update at all.

Players were already quite upset over being charged for what many believed to just be a graphical refresh, but with Spacer's Choice Edition actually out, many are noting some significant performance problems. On the PS5, one player's benchmark saw frames drop below 60fps on performance mode, sometimes dropping as low as 30fps. On PC, Spacer's Choice Edition has just a 12 percent positive review score on Steam, with players complaining of significant performance drops compared to the original Game. That's even with hardware that far exceeds the recommended system specs.

Of course, with Spacer's Choice Edition being a totally new Game that's not even compatible with the original Outer Worlds' save files, we can likely expect some patches from Obsidian and Private Division that will hopefully improve the new Game's performance, and if you haven't already played the Game, then maybe shelling out $50 would be worth it for a fancy version with all the DLC and even some new features. For everyone else, it might not be worth the money or the aggravation.

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