The Outer Worlds is fixing its tiny text problem with a solution every game should steal

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The Outer Worlds has had a text size problem ever since it came out in October, and this week it’s finally getting a solution.

Obsidian’s Nate McDorman took to his personal Twitter account (opens in new tab) to share images of the blessed UI fix, which he says should come to all versions of the game “within a week” (opens in new tab). Games have been suffering from tiny-text-itis ever since the beginning of the HD era, and while it’s a headache for anybody who doesn’t play their games on a PC monitor a few feet from their face, it can also be a big barrier to accessibility for any number of reasons.

Some games include a few toggles to shift the overall size of the user interface, but McDorman did one better. He put in an actual, honest to God text size slider.

I can finally say that I’ve spent the last 3 months getting FONT SCALING into @OuterWorlds! You can get your hands on it very soon! I’m about to drop some GIFs of my work in game! pic.twitter.com/oVweRmg6BtMarch 4, 2020

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Once the update goes live, it will be as easy to scale up (or down) The Outer Worlds’ text size as it is to make your term paper look like it meets the page length requirement. McDorman also shared a few gifs that show the difference the setting can make in The Outer World’s menus and in dialogue scenes.

I ditched the old font size toggle and went with a user customized slider instead (the slider shown earlier, not in this spefici gif). You can now make conversations/subtitles/examinables text even larger! Here’s Parvati to calm your nerves! pic.twitter.com/4E3DO2Hm85March 4, 2020

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You may be wondering why on earth it took three months to put a text size slider in a modern video game. The short answer is “game development.” The long answer is that making the slider itself was easy, as McDorman explained (opens in new tab), but making sure everything else in the user interface worked with the changes instead of breaking horribly was hard.

Whether or not you’re excited for enlarging your font, the same update for The Outer Worlds will also add support for tracking multiple quests on the map at once and ultrawide monitor support for loading screens and cinematics, among other changes (opens in new tab). If you left off your journey through Halcyon partway or are itching to chart another course through the system, that should make for a very good time.

See what else you have look forward to in the weeks and months ahead with our guide to the best upcoming games (opens in new tab).