Outbound Pushed Back Three Weeks Over Mystery Bug

Three weeks before launch, cozy camper van game Outbound has been pushed from April 23 to May 14. Developer Square Glade Games and publisher Silver Lining Games confirmed the delay yesterday, pointing to a late-stage issue they discovered during final preparations.

The studio's Steam post frames the problem in deliberately broad strokes: "Late in the process, an issue has been identified that could negatively impact your enjoyment of the game. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to still guarantee a release across all platforms on the originally planned date." That's the entire explanation. No mention of which platform was affected, whether it's a crash bug or a progression blocker, or how severe the problem actually is. Just "an issue."

I get that small studios don't always want to air their technical laundry in public, but this kind of non-explanation always leaves me a little cold. Players who've wishlisted the game and cleared their schedules deserve more than corporate boilerplate about "negatively impacting enjoyment." Even a single sentence like "we found a save corruption issue on console" would go a long way. The statement reads like it was drafted by a PR template, not the indie team that's been building this thing for years after a successful Kickstarter.

As a consolation, the free demo currently available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC will stay up until May 12, two days before the new launch date. That's a decent gesture, especially for anyone still on the fence about the open-world exploration game, which has you driving an electric camper van through a "utopian near-future" with four-player co-op and an adoptable dog.

Outbound is still set to launch on May 14 across PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.