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Microsoft Outage Temporarily Derails Outer Worlds 2 Launch [Update]

The developers ask for patience as fans struggle to download the latest Game Pass release

The Outer Worlds 2 is out today and finally available to play for anyone who didn’t pay for the early access edition. That includes tons of Game Pass subscribers across Xbox Series X/S and PC. There’s just one problem: A sudden Microsoft Azure outage is causing issues as another slice of the internet faces unexpected downtime.

ā€œStarting at approximately 16:00 UTC, we began experiencing Azure Front Door issues resulting in a loss of availability of some services,ā€ the company announced on Wednesday. ā€œIn addition, customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal.ā€ Microsoft is currently blaming a ā€œconfiguration change errorā€ for the downtime.

Customers impacted include Xbox and its first-party game studios, who rely on Azure systems to distribute their games digitally across console and PC.

ā€œDue to an ongoing Azure service outage, The Outer Worlds 2 may be temporarily unavailable to purchase or install on Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox app on PC, and with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass,ā€ developer Obsidian Entertainment wrote on X. ā€œWe’re working with Microsoft to resolve the issue and will update players when we have more information.ā€

ā€œThe pre-installed game just vanished from my Xbox App today,ā€ replied one fan. ā€œHow’s that even possible?ā€ Another user on Steam wrote, ā€œI can’t launch my copy on Game Pass. So it’s not working even if you have it installed. Just says something about not being able to sign you in.ā€ Ahhh, the power of the cloud!

This hiccup comes a week after the major AWS outage that briefly brought down major games like Fortnite and Roblox. It seems bad that just three companies are responsible for the modern infrastructure of the internet. Ah, well, nevertheless.

Update 10/29/2025, 6:07 p.m. ET: Microsoft says Xbox should be functioning normally again now.

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