Xbox has released the announce trailer for Side Effects Guaranteed, the first story expansion for Obsidian Entertainment's corporate satire The Outer Worlds 2, and it is pitched like a commercial for a prescription drug. Part 1 of the 2-part expansion launches on December 2, with part 2 coming in spring 2027. Check out the official post down below:
The trailer opens with a character warning that the crew has been exposed to something that will kill them all. The team heads for a hideout and sets out to recover a scientist, passing through a purple alien jungle and a crackling lightning storm. It ends on a product shot of a pill-bottle box labeled "DLC: Arcadia's #1 Story Supplement," as a narrator tells players to "ask your doctor about DLC" and claims that 10 out of 10 doctors agree the expansion is right for them.
A Distress Signal And A Dying Crew
Obsidian director of communications Mikey Dowling described the story on the PlayStation Blog yesterday. A distress signal from a derelict ship draws the player's crew into the story of an abandoned settlement and a power struggle over the future of Sub Rosa, a criminal organization. At the center of it is a team who has been subjected to something that will kill them through "explosive cell death." Dowling clarifies that "it's more a liquefaction than explosion, but it means death nonetheless."
The events play out in Elysium Valley, a new region with its own quests and facilities. Dowling calls the story one "filled with moral quandaries and consequences big and small," and the choices made about Sub Rosa and the subjects of Elysium Valley lead directly into part 2 next spring.
PlayStation shared the date with a link to Dowling's rundown:
The World Behind The Satire
The Outer Worlds series is set in an alternate history where the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley never happened. Theodore Roosevelt never took office to break up the business trusts, and society ended up run by megacorporations with a class system built on wealth and brand loyalty. After faster-than-light travel was invented, humanity spread out to colonies across space, and the art and technology of those colonies mix Art Nouveau, Old West, steampunk and dieselpunk styles.
The Outer Worlds 2 moves the series to Arcadia, a planetary system where most of the action takes place on the 5 moons of the planet Elysium. The colony is controlled by the Protectorate, an authoritarian regime built around a cult of personality for its founder, Alexandra Varick, and it enforces its rule with a chemical lobotomy called "Mental Refreshment." The player commands a team from the Earth Directorate, sent to investigate interdimensional rifts that threaten to destroy the colonies. In Arcadia, the Protectorate is at war with the megacorporation Auntie's Choice and the Order of the Ascendant, and the player can back either side, both or neither.
The game launched on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on October 29, 2025.
What Else Part 1 Adds
Side Effects Guaranteed raises the level cap to 36 and adds new perks, new flaws, 5 new weapons and a Sub Rosa radio station with 20 new songs. One of the weapons, the Immobilizer, switches off gravity around its target and leaves it floating. The story begins right before the main game's point of no return, and a new-game option loads a premade level 27 character for players who want to start the DLC directly. A free update on the same day lets every player respec at any time.
The expansion is sold separately and is included in the Premium Edition and Premium Edition Upgrade. Xbox lists it for Xbox Series X|S, PC, Cloud, Game Pass and Battle.net, and it is also coming to PS5.
Which faction in Arcadia do you trust least with a deadly medical experiment, the Protectorate, Auntie's Choice or Sub Rosa?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.