''The Outsider'' was an

action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Nov ...

and Xbox 360 developed by

Frontier Developments Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park Construction and management simulation ...

. It saw players control a CIA agent who goes on the run. It was announced in 2005 and cancelled in 2011.

Premise

''The Outsider'' was set in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and its surrounding areas, including the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

Headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

in Langley, Virginia,

Joint Base Andrews Joint Base Andrews (JBA) is a United States military facility located in Prince George's County, Maryland. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force 316th Wing, Air Force District of Washington (AFDW). The base was e ...

, and

Newport News Shipbuilding Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

. The player controlled a CIA intelligence officer, Jameson, who could use various hand-to-hand combat styles and weapons. The game's opening sequence depicts the character wrongly becoming a fugitive, and leaves the player to decide how to continue.

said that ''The Outsider'' would abandon the traditional, prescriptive, mostly linear story of current generation games, and replaced it by simulating characters' motivations and aims. This gave the player genuine freedom to change the story outcomes, with each player having a unique experience rather than simply switching between good or evil'. The director, David Braben, said that this level of freedom would demonstrate what it is to be a "next-gen" game. A new animation system was being developed with the aim of giving a more realistic feel as it is adaptive and less scripted than typical animations.

Development

According to ''

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editori ...

'', ''The Outsider'' spent three years in pre-production and two years in full development, funded by the publisher, Codemasters. Following a change in management, Codemasters dropped the project. Frontier entered negotiations with

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

about turning ''The Outsider'' into a Jason Bourne game with the working title ''The Bourne Redemption.'' In January 2011, after six years of development, ''The Outsider'' was cancelled, leading to nearly 30 staff layoffs. In 2014, Braben told ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' that ''The Outsider'' was probably "gone for good".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Outsider Action-adventure games Cancelled PlayStation 3 games Cancelled Windows games Cancelled Xbox 360 games