Believe it or not, the upcoming video game "The Outer Worlds" is an alternate timeline. According to its creators, "This is an alternate history,” says co-director Leonard Boyarsky. “There was a point where the timeline split off. It was at a certain point, around the time of Einstein. There was a first World War, but it was for different reasons. And maybe there wasn’t a second World War.” One of the defining features that set Earth apart in this new timeline is the nature of companies, classism, and the central importance of money-making. Imagine the already absurd power of corporations, banks, and billionaires in the real world, and ratchet it up several more degrees. “What if the trusts hadn’t been broken up?,” Boyarsky muses. “You have these robber barons at the turn of the 20th century. A couple of hundred years later, what if we still have that culture?”

See: https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/02/18/the-universe-of-the-outer-worlds

This is an alternate history,” says co-director Leonard Boyarsky. “There was a point where the timeline split off. It was at a certain point, around the time of Einstein. There was a first World War, but it was for different reasons. And maybe there wasn’t a second World War.” One of the defining features that set Earth apart in this new timeline is the nature of companies, classism, and the central importance of money-making. Imagine the already absurd power of corporations, banks, and billionaires in the real world, and ratchet it up several more degrees. “What if the trusts hadn’t been broken up?,” Boyarsky muses. “You have these robber barons at the turn of the 20th century. A couple of hundred years later, what if we still have that culture?”




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It was recently revealed on Reddit, "It was revealed by Obsidian Entertainment that the outer worlds timeline starts in an alternate 1901, why this date specifically well I'll explain its significance.

In our real world President William McKinley who was basicly a puppet controled by the corporations and robber barons of the Gilded Age and had started his second term but it was short lived because in September 14, 1901 William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz a form factory worker (he had lost his job 7 years earlier) turned anarchist, this resulted in vice president teddy roosevelt becoming president and he went on a warpath of implementing several reforms as well as trust-busting the corporations.

But in the outer worlds timeline President William McKinley was never assassinated so all the reforms and trust-busting that happened under Teddy never happened which explains why the corporations control everything in the outer worlds universe because there was no government regulations keeping them in check...."
 
The outer worlds have high praise from all the reviews I saw. Seems like a really good fallout new vegas with a new universe. Only real downside that I saw is that the game is short. You can finish almost anything in 40 hours if I'm not mistaken.

 
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I certainly hope there is enough popularity behind the game to flesh out a full timeline. If anything, much like Fallout and Resistance: Fall of Man, it was the popularity that helped generate the timeline world-building...

Second, let's hope it's not a copout like Homefront...
 
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