The Outsider (video game)

The Outsider was set in a city based on present-day Washington, D.C. and its surrounding areas, including the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Joint Base Andrews, and Newport News Shipbuilding. The player controlled a CIA intelligence officer, Jameson, who can 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.[2]

Frontier Developments claimed that the game 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’.[4] Director David Braben said that this level of freedom would demonstrate what it is to be a "next-gen" video game.[5] 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.[6]

After six years of development, The Outsider was dropped in January 2011 by publisher Codemasters, leading to nearly 30 staff layoffs. Braben confirmed that development had ceased.[7] In 2014, Braben told Eurogamer that The Outsider was probably "gone for good".[8]