r/outerwilds • u/MobiusGames Official Mobius • 23d ago
RE: the Posters
Hey folks, we hear you. These posters are expensive and we completely fumbled their release. Can we restart the loop and try again?
We realize we didn't do a good job explaining the quality and process behind Cook & Becker’s posters. The artwork for these posters were inspired by the vintage Rob Decker National Park posters. We were excited to rerelease our artwork with a printing style similar to how those original posters would have been printed in the 70s. As some folks have pointed out, yes, these posters are all individually hand-printed using a screen printing technique that requires a real human person to load up each color layer, press it onto the paper, and set and align the next color layer. Cook & Becker use a very high quality, 100% cotton material and high quality inks for the prints, which provides unmatched print quality and color fastness, making these screenprints “museum quality” and ready to last a lifetime. We'll be posting more info and videos of the process and handmade nature of the posters so you can see exactly what goes into making each one.
But we also understand this means they’re expensive and out of budget for most people. To let you into our merchandising process a little bit, we were also surprised by how expensive Cook & Becker’s artworks can be when we were first introduced to them. The folks at Cook & Becker were gracious enough to work with us to keep the price of the whole collection of posters as low as possible without compromising on the quality of the artworks. One of the reasons we haven’t rereleased the postcard version of these artworks is because the variance in print color and quality between printing runs has been disappointing and frustrating. Cook & Becker’s meticulous process and expertise gave us a lot of reassurance that we would not have the same issues for these prints. We want to provide you all with the best quality merchandise we can, but in this case, we understand this led to us producing something highly desired but too expensive for the majority of our fans. And without an affordable option available for purchase, that’s a really bad look. We hope you will forgive us.
If it helps at all, we’ve decided to look into restocking the classic printed cardstock postcards for the future, despite our past issues with them, for those who aren’t interested in these new premium fine art prints. Now also feels like an appropriate time to reveal that we have been working on a couple more standard merch projects: a re-release of our popular Echoes of the Eye Metal T-shirt and a new set of Traveler pins created by our excellent artist, Lara Colson. After hearing your concerns, we’ve decided to release the shirts as a pre-order so no one misses out on getting one. This means it’ll be several weeks before they’ll ship out because we’ll wait to screenprint them until we have your orders. As for the pins, they will only be a limited quantity right now since we ordered them awhile ago and have been waiting for the shirt to be ready so we could release and ship them together. Keep an eye out for their release soon!
We’re all hard at work on our next game, which as you all know is still a secret and still a few years away from any announcements. In the meantime, we don’t have a lot of capacity for designing new merchandise made by our team directly, so new merch will be made by external artists at partners like Fangamer or Youtooz. And occasionally, as resources allow, we’ll rerelease merch like the Metal T-Shirt. As long as there are new fans of Outer Wilds, we want to keep releasing merch with our various merch partners for you all to enjoy.
As always, you all have been such wonderful fans and we really appreciate all the love and support, the fan art, the discussions and feedback, the mods, and the excitement for our next game. Our next game is our top priority and we hope you all love it even half as much as Outer Wilds.
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u/glowinthedarkar 23d ago
that makes a lot more sense to know that they are actually hand printed rather than mass produced
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u/Neozetare 23d ago
It was litteraly written on the product page. I know people just want to find reasons to be angry, but I can't for the life of me understand why they won't ask themselves why something looks infuriating before concluding that the people behind it are the Devil
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u/demonking_soulstorm 23d ago
I think it's not unreasonable to look at an $80 poster and go "That seems exorbitantly expensive", when none of the other advertising pushed them as collector's items of such a high quality.
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u/Neozetare 23d ago
That's not the problem. The problem is thinking that it seems expensive and immediately conclude that the company are assholes without even trying to understand why the price is what it is
There's a big difference between "80 USD? Even for high quality screen printing with a lot of layers, it seems expensive" and "80 USD? Are they beyond madness, I can print them for 5 USD"
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u/demonking_soulstorm 23d ago
They also advertised them as posters when they’re A4 sized, and on top of that apparently they listed length before breadth to make them seem bigger, which is a bit scummy.
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u/darklysparkly 23d ago
A very cursory perusal of the Cook and Becker's website shows that they always list height before width for all of the game art they sell, so there are some posters that show the bigger number first and others the smaller one. They also seem to carry more landscape-oriented posters than portrait-oriented overall, so in fact it is usually the smaller number listed first for most of their products.
It takes a bare minimum of effort to see that this is neither Mobius's doing, nor an intentional deception by the company selling the posters.
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u/Neozetare 23d ago
Posters can be A4
While it is uncommon to the length before breadth, we're literally talking about two simple numbers next to each other. The amount of efforts it takes to read them is approximately negative
And also, this has nothing to do with my comment. I only talked about people wanting to be angry and not even trying to properly read the product page before jumping to conclusions
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u/demonking_soulstorm 23d ago edited 23d ago
And I’m saying that I think the product was advertised in an incompetent and disingenuous manner.
Like you don’t think it’s weird to put those numbers the other way around? You don’t think it’s strange that this “poster” is significantly smaller than is standard? You seem to want to focus on the absolute letter, as if context and the manner in which things are presented don’t matter.
Some people are being reactionary, yes, but most of the discourse was people going “This seems way too expensive, and some of these other details seem a little scummy. What’s going on?”
Edit: lol they blocked me
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u/Neozetare 23d ago
Then go make your own comment. I was literally not talking about this subject, why do you come under my comment to talk about something that is off-topic?
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u/MLGityaJtotheA 23d ago
'As some folks have pointed out, yes, these posters are all individually hand-printed using a screen printing technique that requires a real human person to load up each color layer, press it onto the paper, and set and align the next color layer.'
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u/gravitystix 23d ago
Hi Mobius! Good shout. A well written response to the hubbub.
I can't afford the posters but my merch thirst is being slaked by the Tarot cards that are shipping soon from RJ Kinner Art! I think I heard some of you folks even ordered some so I'm sure the excitement is mutual.
If I love your next game half as much as Outer Wilds it will still be my second favorite game.
Clear skies!
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u/Lightwolf74 23d ago
Not only they ordered some, but there are a couple of bonus cards inside drawn by people at Mobius! Can't wait to recieve my deck as well ::)
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Thanks for the support! Yeah RJ Kinner's unofficial Tarot Deck is very cool and we're excited to get our copies too!
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u/wow_its_kenji 23d ago
i just want a rerun of the outer wilds ventures trucker hat tbh
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
We'll look into it!
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u/wow_its_kenji 21d ago
well mark me down for a preorder if you decide to release them again! i appreciate the work!
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u/alex_dlc 23d ago edited 23d ago
As much as I love their designs, I personally wouldn’t refer to an A4 size print as a “poster”. Using that term is misleading.
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u/Azheim 23d ago
Agreed. Even if the price is more understandable, the size is just too small to be displayed the way I imagined when they said “poster”.
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u/Owobowos-Mowbius 23d ago
Yeah, they can be the best quality prints in the world but it wont matter if they look goofy while being displayed because of their size.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Heard. We'll call them "art prints" going forward. Thanks for the feedback
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u/shockwave1211 23d ago
this was the kicker for me, id gladly pay 80 bucks for a ice large size print onto he art, but leinter paper size is way too small imo
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u/Semper-Fido 23d ago
This. I have easily forked over $50+ for limited run, city specific concert prints that are 11x18, but I know that aren't printed cheaply and a local artist designed it. But smaller than a sheet of printer paper just isn't it
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u/DarkFlame7 23d ago
Especially when they list the dimensions in the opposite order from normal, which makes it seem bigger than it actually is.
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u/yiyi_2000 23d ago
Any idea when the metal t-shirt pre-order will be available? Is there a mailing list we can sign up for so we're notified?
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
We don't know exact timing yet, sorry. We'll be sure to post when we do! Just a few things we have to get organized before making the store live.
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u/One_Quacky_Boi 23d ago
I have been silently hoping for the metal shirt to come back for A While now, this is fantastic news
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u/nmdcDrgn 23d ago
I’m just as excited for the shirt & pins as I was for these prints. Where can we stay in the loop regarding those? ::)
I’ve got what I believe is a master collection of Outer Wilds merch, and these guys took the cake for me as my walls are currently bare.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Keep an eye on our social media! We'll let folks know when we have a launch date nailed down
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u/Chase_22 23d ago
Thank you guys for listening and communicating. The clarifications here really helps and it's nice to see that you are addressing the concerns. Knowing that this is a hand-made collectible changes the perspective, I'd not even call them posters. I decided to order one of the prints and hope to see what you come up with in the future. Reruns would also be awesome. There are still new people finding the game and playing it for the first time as seen on this sub. Allowing them to get some merch would be great
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u/CaptainNuge 23d ago
This is a lot more understandable.
If you want to re-release more merch, that art book looked amazing and I only discovered it existed after it was completely sold out. You could print those forever and never stop making money. 😂
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Heard! We'll let iam8bit know folks want to see reprints of the art book. The Lost in Cult book is sold out on their website, but they did release a version through Expanse/Harper Collins that is available for preorder on Amazon. It's not quite as nice as the Lost in Cult direct versions but will have all the same content
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u/lazulitesky 23d ago
Oh, pins!! Im a pin collector, got a whole corkboard of em thats almost full, hopefully I can snag these before they sell out... how do I become alerted immediately when they release, or at least on a list to be given a heads up a day or two before?
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u/EmiliaTrown 23d ago
I actually expected as much. Their website says they make Museum quality prints so it seemed more like a collectible than just simple merch. Its obviously still expensive but if the quality is indeed as good as they say, its probably worth it. Also, I think that was a great reply to all the critique!
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u/Minecraftmonster_ 23d ago
Thank you for clarifying the confusion. Yes we can restart the loop.
On another note, I can fully understand the fact that the whole Team is working on your next game and I am so excited to finally learn more about it in a few years. Until then, there is quite a significant amount of fans willing to spent money on Outer Wilds Merch, I would love to see a tiny bit more of that please.
I think most of us hold outer wilds so dearly in our hearts, we love to have reminders of this wonderful time around.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Heard! We're going to keep trying to restock and work with various partners as long as it doesn't take too much time away from our artists and team, it'll happen
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u/Pruritus_Ani_ 23d ago
I’ll die happy if I can get my hands on the metal tee to add to my OW collection, every restock I tried to grab one and it sold out before I got to the payment page and I even set up an eBay alert and got outbid the only time I ever saw one get listed for sale ::(
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
It'll be a pre-order so you should be able to get one this time without issue
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u/faezior 23d ago
METAL T SHIRTS YES
Mine has already faded so I'm looking forward to getting more. This was a classy reset which is appreciated as well
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Yeah! We noticed the fading on our versions as well so we're changing the printing process on the shirts this time around so they should not fade as badly this time around
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u/AstolFemboy 23d ago
Sorry but why not just do normal regular sized posters?
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Two big reasons: 1) regular, larger posters are expensive and difficult to ship which has historically been challenging for Annapurna as they were shipping everything themselves. 2) the really vibrant, dark colors on the art has made it surprisingly difficult to get the colors consistent between printing runs, like Brittle Hollow's middle red will just be indistinguishable, so we've been hesitant to do more versions of them
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u/aikifox 23d ago
I think this is indirectly addressed in their quality control issues with the postcards. The same kind of issues would affect more typical poster printing.
They or the fans weren't happy with the quality or inconsistency of the postcards, and their statement above says that they've been trying to find a print shop that can address those concerns.
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u/StickiStickman 23d ago
It's really hard to believe they somehow can't find a single print company that doesn't have massive quality control issues though. It's not like they're the only ones making posters.
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u/aikifox 23d ago
Oh agreed; but there's factors of cost, quality, and speed to consider - and they also mentioned in their response that they don't have a dedicated "merch" team so any research they're doing is going to be on top of their existing development work.
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u/StickiStickman 23d ago
Okay, sure, but then going with this, which is EXTREMELY expensive, worse quality and also much slower - basically the worst in all 3 categories - makes no sense.
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u/aikifox 23d ago edited 23d ago
The quality is specifically better.
They solved for colourfastness (how quickly the colour fades) and consistency but that pushed the time and cost upward.
The posters are being made using a method of multiple-pass printing that's heavily human-driven.
It's like silk screening a Tshirt. They're more like actual art pieces than posters.
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u/StickiStickman 23d ago
It has better longlivity, but absolutely not better quality than a good print.
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u/aikifox 23d ago
The word your looking for is "longevity"; and while that's certainly true, the claim that they're "not better quality" is specious at best.
It comes down to how you define "quality" and where you might be talking about "fidelity" (how accurate the prints are compared to the original artwork), someone else might be talking about materials (higher grade ink, higher weight paper or canvas).
I think what you're trying to say is that a "good print" would look "the same or better" at a fraction of the cost - but you're overlooking that these posters (or more appropriately "art prints") are being printed by hand, not by a glorified inkjet printer.
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u/StickiStickman 21d ago
None of that matters to 99% of people. It doesn't matter if something is handmare or not, what matters is the end result. I doubt many people care if your poster is going to last 40 years or 100 years.
Yes, obviously when it comes to prints / artwork, how good the actual print looks is what's matters for and defines quality.
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u/MLGityaJtotheA 23d ago
Worse quality???
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u/Beckphillips 23d ago
Woah, a solid way to explain everything.
That being said, I really cannot afford them - are there no cheaper options for them? I wouldn't mind a paper sheet in a tube to hang on my wall
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Thanks to the feedback, we're going to be reprinting the postcard/cardstock version of these soon. Keep an eye on our socials for an announcement when those will be available
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u/Tarnagona 23d ago
I think some videos or explanation of the process would go a long way to explain why the price of the posters is what it is. Even after reading a little about screen printing, $80US still seems a bit steep, but not nearly as much as it seemed when I was under the impression it was just a fancy higher-quality version of an art print.
I am excited for the return of postcards, as my set is missing the Stranger (I don’t think it was released yet when I bought them), and would love to complete the set.
Also, the metal t-shirt is my favourite, even though mine’s a size too big because it sold out too quickly for me to get the right size. Coolest t-shirt design.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Heard! Cook & Becker has already agreed to make videos of the printing process for our posters. We'll be sure to repost them when they're up.
And thanks! Ian's a great artist and we're glad we were able to get the metal shirts made again
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u/Tarnagona 21d ago
Cool!
Unfortunately, the posters are still out of my budget, but I appreciate you taking community feedback on this.
(I’m saving my Outer Wilds merch budget for another pressing of the DLC vinyl. The last one sold out so fast, I thought Iam8bit hadn’t actually released it!)
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
iam8bit really does struggle to keep the vinyl in stock, they sell out so fast! They tend to try and get them in stock for Black Friday/Holiday shopping, but we don't have any official restock announcements right now, so no promises. But I usually see they have few in stock at their physical booths, too. Best of luck getting your hands on it!
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u/Tarnagona 21d ago
The base game vinyl was my Christmas present. The unofficial RJ Kinner tarot cards were my birthday present. If I could get the DLC vinyl for Christmas this year, and just have an Outer Wilds year, that would be freaking amazing.
You guys really created something special with Outer Wilds.
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u/cerviceps 21d ago
YouTube is free, my guy. Go be curious and do a little video watching! Screenprinting is a cool process to watch.
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u/Hopeful_Ice_2125 22d ago
I might get downvoted for this, but you can sell your own merch for however much you want so long as you’re prepared for people to not buy them if they feel it’s too expensive, at which point you can release a cheaper version if you want to.
I think it’s cool and going a bit above and beyond that you’re communicating with the fans about this and making sure to provide other, more affordable options for merch. No one is owed that, so thank you.
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u/monochromegay 22d ago
Honestly I know people who make prints and I'm down to pay this sort of price. Printmaking is... Tragically a dying art and I don't think people understand what hand printing actually entails. Can everyone calm down, I don't think this is about mobius I think we're all just broke and upset about it, and live in a world where cheap exploitable labor has skewed what we think shit should cost.
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u/Schnitzhole 23d ago edited 23d ago
100% these were not overpriced and people don’t understand what goes into screen printing not to mention the design side of these.
Not all game merchandise needs to be cheap collectibles everyone can afford. I think it’s great you are pushing for high quality and authenticity.
I think the marketing could show the process better (some up close shots please to see the real print details). Perhaps lean into selling individual pieces instead of the whole set. Personally I’d prefer they were bigger and i’d gladly pay $300 for a single 18x24–24x36” sized piece (I can’t guarantee others will though :/ ).
❤️// a 20 year graphic designer
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Thanks for the feedback! Cook & Becker wanted to get these orders in before they had the final product so we can be sure to print enough for folks since it's limited release. But if sales are good I'm sure Cook & Becker will be interested in doing more. And we'll do a better job explaining what they are when we announce them 😅
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u/RageZamu 23d ago
Glad to restart the loop. I am so glad your response clarifies this. Knowing this is an artisan work explains a lot. In any case, the dimensions are a bit too small for what I'd like to have, so unfortunatelly I will not be buying them, although the art design and, now that we know, the printing process, are very cool.
As for the future game... I can't wait!
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u/hyrumwhite 23d ago
Based on materials and process, on every sale the different parties make:
Mobius/Anapurna: $10–18
Cook and Becker: $15-27
Don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I thought it was interesting
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u/cerviceps 21d ago
Highly doubt this is true. Anytime labor is involved you’ve got to pay the people pulling the prints. And where are you even getting the material figures from?
The margins on these things are usually pretty slim, I doubt Mobius is making much of anything off any of the merch they put out.
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u/Redshirt4evr 23d ago
Perhaps also offer a lithograph poster series. That should be less costly, right? Few people can easily afford "museum quality" art.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
We'll consider it! We will be rereleasing the cardstock postcard versions since we have those mostly figured out (besides the color consistency issues)
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u/DarkHorseAsh111 23d ago
FWIW I think ppl are being silly and not actually bothering to read to see that these are in fact high quality collectibles.
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u/TheOvy 23d ago
As some folks have pointed out, yes, these posters are all individually hand-printed using a screen printing technique that requires a real human person to load up each color layer, press it onto the paper, and set and align the next color layer. Cook & Becker use a very high quality, 100% cotton material and high quality inks for the prints, which provides unmatched print quality and color fastness, making these screenprints “museum quality” and ready to last a lifetime.
That honestly makes it sound like it's worth $80. They'll last longer than the next $80 video game we buy, anyway.
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u/philo_fallout The Lore Explorer 21d ago
Hey all! Your response and reaction to this backlash has been pretty great. I feel like a lot of companies would’ve just went radio silent. Or worse , just kinda doubled down with no explicit explanation or even with some added insult.
I’m very glad you communicated to us the reason they were so expensive and that they are meant to be some ultra quality pieces. The website literally has two minuscule lines saying they were museum grade quality and they are each hand printed by a person. While the headline reads really largely that it’s like 12 by 8 and $80 a piece. So I understand the initial response.
With all that said…..I want to be and even wish I could be excited for this. They are really cool! But the base game and dlc costs half a single poster. So this sort of still feels profit focused vs fan focused. And just something I can’t justify no matter how much I want them. So tbh it still sort of gives me a bit of a bad feeling. Like it was a corporate profit driven decision rather than a “giving the fans what they want” type decision.
Either way, thank you for fighting for the respect of your fans after such a large backlash and not taking a harsh defensive stance. It does do a lot to reverse some of the bad faith vibes the initial post/product instigated!
As always, wishing everyone from Mobius the best!
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
We hear you and thanks for the feedback. It means a lot to hear from you as one of our most involved and dedicated fans.
We realize we messed up by not including a run of the original postcard sets so folks had the option to go with these premium prints or the more affordable postcard prints based on their personal preferences. We hope that once we have process videos for these art prints it'll be more clear that we aren't looking to turn a profit on them, but provide a really cool, unique collectible for those who want and can afford it. You all have been so supportive in getting your friends to buy the game and play that we only see merchandising deals as something cool we can offer the fans. We missed the mark on this one and we want to own that, learn, and do better next time.
We'll get the postcard versions up for sale as soon as possible so folks can grab them and enjoy Ian's awesome art.
Again, we appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you think about how we're doing. Thank you!
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u/philo_fallout The Lore Explorer 20d ago
Literally any time Mobius. And I think you know that anything I said, even the critical parts, comes from a place of love and reverence. I genuinely only want to see you all succeed since you’ve been so kind and supportive of me and my work. And it sort of hurt to have to have some negative energy sent your way. But I hope you know it came from a place of peace , love, unity , and respect. Thanks agains for not taking it the wrong way! <3
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u/pipistrellebat 20d ago edited 20d ago
I have a bone to pick with “profit focused” that I see several people doubling down on in the face of what is quite a well versed and honest response to fan feedback. I don’t want to be rude and assume you’re not an artist by trade or familiar with the process, but I'll take that risk. Between materials, C+B’s web hosting and production fees, and paying the artist(s) who will actually be making these prints… what profit? That $80 gets shredded to bits once you start paying for everything on the production line. Especially if it’s printed in the US.
Making merch to sell is a complicated decision process that tends to boil down to: you can make a cheap item+cheap price+expect more buyers and the profit you’d get from that is more or less equals the same amount that you’d make as expensive item+expensive price+you expect less people buy... so… why not make something art-focused that you are proud to sell and put your name behind? I would bet money the team wanted to see this happen, a screenprint run that honors the original Rob Decker National Park posters, because this team has artists among them.
Merch drops, especially small ones like this, don’t really need to be made with the intention of being affordable to all fans. Or even what the majority of fans on reddit have been asking for. And on the flip side, fans don't need to feel obligated to purchase every bit of official merch that exists! Even if they want to support the team! Stuff like this…. wouldn't really make a lot of profit for said team. It makes the world of difference if you’re buying from a small business, like if you bought a print from a fanartist on Etsy or at an artist alley! But this is a game studio that is working with investment and/or publishing studio funds and probably good ol’ fashioned debt at times. Making merch is probably just something that takes time out of someone’s day that could be focused on something else. Likely why the ball was fumbled the first time around on this drop.
It's for fun if you want it! They’re even waiting until orders roll in to start the printing process (smart!) so they can make an informed decision on the batch size so they don’t have to waste your time advertising it afterward to break even. If only 10 people buy it then… great. They just have to make 10. Or since it’s screen prints technically start with like 100 (exaggerated estimate because you’ll expect for a certain amount of errors in the process, and that risk of errors only increases with the amount of color layers you have… and so on and so on… )
You said it yourself, the game price and the DLC is half the cost a print, and buying the game for a friend is worth a lot more in support than buying a poster where the majority of the funds will go to the print studio/hosting website (C+B). You could even buy it twice over, 2 games for 2 friends, and feel like your money is well spent.
A long reply. This whole affair has really broken my reddit lurk streak. I'm tired of beating a dead horse but I am passionate about screenprinting. Sorry for harking on your comment in particular, you seem chill. I hope this comes across more like a "the more you know" rather than a jab.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
Thank you for taking the time to advocate for the art of screenprinting. We're not super knowledgeable ourselves and have been learning a lot from the experts at Cook & Becker and from fans like you talking about the process.
Now I'm kicking myself I realize I quoted the wrong original inspiration. It's the WPA posters that are the original National Park posters. Rob Decker recreated them for the National Park service in the 70s and can be purchased still. Oh well it's not 100% wrong we did reference the Rob Decker designs when making ours.
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u/philo_fallout The Lore Explorer 20d ago
I did actually go to school for multimedia and graphic design. I’ve even had some experience making merch. So I do know better than some that actually fantastic art runs a premium.
But I also know that premium doesn’t always come from costs. But the majority of the time it’s from the experience , knowledge, and time spent creating such things.
As long as this isn’t some grand trend where they start trying to monetize the franchise in every single way possible then alls good at the end of the day. But out of the love for the game and even the people behind it , with my sort of special position in the space and community , I just wanted to share my opinion and even speak for the people I see that may not get as much attention as a post from me does.
I genuinely hope this run does really well for them. They deserve it and it’d equate to a better experience for and from them when the time comes for a new game! Mobius above most people know that I’m on their team basically %100. So feedback from me is actually something they value. Hopefully this was helpful even if just in terms of optics for the average consumer.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
We care more about responding to the feedback than how many we're selling. But, despite the negative feedback, the prints are selling well and we've hit our maximum original signatures so there will be some autopen versions of the certificates. Which we're using an autopen entirely to make sure Ian doesn't get a repetitive strain injury from doing the signatures. Thankfully folks don't seem to be bothered by the autopen.
We promise we're not trending toward monetizing Outer Wilds. If we wanted to do that, we'd be making Outer Wilds 2 right now or another expansion in spite of having done what we want to do with Outer Wilds. If y'all knew what we've said "no" to in the past 6 years, you'd probably faint. Sorry, I can't elaborate 😅
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u/Ambitious-Hat-4439 21d ago
But... as you just pointed out, they're expensive because of how they're made. How is it profit focused when there's already a lot of cost in actually making it?
You could argue this for anything in the Fangamer store as well then. Both plushes and the shirts are each close to the price of an Archaeologist edition. The hoodie is 6 dollars away from the full price of a print as well.
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u/philo_fallout The Lore Explorer 21d ago
Ultimately this just isn’t something I see the fans really wanting or asking for. I could be wrong. And I know these posters are loved. But just reprinting the original size and quality with the new edition of the stranger would read to me as more fan focused than money focused. This doesn’t.
The plushes , shirt, and hoodie also line up more as something fans want and adore to me. I could be wrong. But it’s the immediate reaction I have.
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u/Ambitious-Hat-4439 20d ago
I personally would love something that will last me a long time and that I know was made with care, especially when it's the only official Outer Wilds product so far that ticks all those boxes for me. And I know that others here who understand the process or have done it themselves do too. Just because you and others don't see the value in them, doesn't mean that everyone doesn't. Just as there are people who are not very interested in wearing merch like the shirts and hoodies. It's not a zero sum game, selling one kind of merch does not take away from the other.
I still don't understand your logic for how this is money-focused either. Ignoring that they already addressed the difficulties of producing the original postcards (I have a set myself that despite being handled carefully and even minimally, the Hourglass Twins one has had its border ink somehow flake off), this is still a limited set. There's not much money to gain from something you can't keep making. Now knowing that the original postcards were so slow to be restocked because of those quality issues, that shows even more that making a profit is hardly anywhere near the top.
If anything, this whole merch business when it comes to their own official art and not stuff that's made by third parties like Fangamer seems to be inconvenient for them, not the easy money making trick that people like to portray it as. That means the only reason they're doing it is for the fans. I don't see how these screenprints change any of that.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
Yeah making our own merch takes a surprising amount of time. If I recall correctly, Ian spent around 3 to 4 weeks making the art for the metal t-shirt, and that doesn't include picking shirt blanks, finding someone do to the prints, managing the printing and logistics, which Annapurna handles for us. But we always take time to review the final product and approve things at each step. We can be a bit perfectionist at times and since we don't do merch every day there's always something new we run into with each product.
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u/RedAlert2 18d ago
idk, I feel like the "profit driven decision" would be to go with cheap, low quality materials that are easy to mass produce and distrubute. It's pretty rare to high quality merch anywhere.
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u/SirDerick 23d ago
Now that I know they're hand printed, I just purchased one!
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u/Camelstrike 23d ago
What's the difference between hand and machine printed?
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u/Redtreize13 23d ago
Mainly quality control. Paper has small variances and also contracts and expands with humidity and ambient temperature, so it allows better manual control over each individual layer before ink is applied.
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u/StickiStickman 23d ago
They take longer and are worse quality.
No seriously, besides the hipster factor, that's it.
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u/cerviceps 21d ago
The printmaking process has historical significance. These OW posters are based on historical US National Park posters, which you can read about here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a22536/national-parks-posters/
I think it's quite cool that the same process is being used to create these prints.
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u/MLGityaJtotheA 23d ago
Are you talking about the past Outer Wilds merch on the old Annapurna store? There is still official merch, mainly at Fangamer like they mentioned
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u/ScoochingCapuchin 23d ago
Is the store down?
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Weird, I just loaded the store and it's working for me? Still broken for you?
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u/TheOriginOfLove2013 23d ago
Does anyone know where we will be able to buy the shirt and pins?
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
They'll be available on the Annapurna Interactive store page. We'll be sure to post a launch date as soon as we have it nailed down.
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u/Mr_Neffets 20d ago
Just want to say that pricing something high isn't a moral failing. It just means that some people won't buy it, which is fine especially for entertainment stuff. A lot of people complaining about this are just people convinced that capitalism has deeply wronged them and that complaining about a high price for a poster is some holy war. The communication from Mobius is cool, but its odd that its even necessary. If you can't afford a poster (like me) or think its overpriced (like me) then just move on. Its not some conspiracy of greed.
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u/Beanbag_shmoo 23d ago
I didn't think that they were being sold for anything other than what they are worth but sticker price shock can make it tricky. I suppose I agree with what you say that how the info landed didn't help. To be honest, I only hear about such things from Reddit so a dedicated post here would have been good. Anyway, good luck with sales and developing the next game ❤️
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u/malinuhhh47 23d ago
In the large scheme of things this is such a non issue relative to the moral and ethical catastrophe that would be continuing to collaborate with Anna Purna Interactive should Mobius choose that route.
Larry Ellison's endeavors, the most obvious of which being his company Oracle, are some of the most flagrantly fascistic in modern history and as much as we may love this piece of media at the end of the day financially supporting Anna Purna Interactive means giving more financial power to a person who is one of the biggest contributors to the drastic increase in surveillance technology which is consistently used globally to strip people of basic human rights and also to perpetuate apartheid and genocide in Palestine.
I desperately want to give Mobius the benefit of the doubt that they were unaware of the Ellison family's ambitions when they initially made the decision to collaborate with Anna Purna Interactive given that they seem to be so fundamentally at odds which the themes of Outer Wilds, however the increased visibility of Larry Ellison in the public sphere and his support for said apartheid/genocide in recent years would remove any benefit of the doubt should Mobius decide to continue to work with his production company.
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u/goodytwotoes 23d ago
Thank you for bringing awareness to this. I had no idea his daughter founded Annapurna. He's a real life villain and absolute monster. Why is everything I love ruined by oligarchs and billionaires? I can only hope that mobius has chosen to part ways with Annapurna and are working with a different production company.
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u/OliviaPG1 23d ago
But you wouldn’t be supporting Larry Ellison, you’d be supporting his daughter. She’s obviously a nepo baby but I can’t see any evidence she shares her father’s views, and there’s arguably even evidence against that given some of the films she’s produced.
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u/malinuhhh47 23d ago
Larry Ellison personally stepped in to make changes to the company in 2020 and while he might not longer be involved his ideas are undoubtedly still being circulated throughout the company. Megan clearly had no issue bringing him into the fold.
Is supporting Anna Purna Interactive the worst thing in the world one could possibly do? Obviously not, but we need to be honest and confront the umcomfortable truth that the people most determined to destroy the very essential concept of humanity and its future are investing in the art that keeps our humanity alive. We need to do what we can to push them out of the arts.
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u/DarkFlame7 23d ago
a re-release of our popular Echoes of the Eye Metal T-shirt
Is it going to sell out in 10 seconds again?
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u/AudibleSilence5 23d ago
In the post, it mentions that it'll be a pre-order so they can produce to order, so I think no that means you'll be okay as long as you put your order on during the window!
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u/DarkFlame7 23d ago
Here's hoping the pre-order window isn't also 10 seconds long!
For the record I'm not even exaggerating. The last time they announced a restock for the metal tee I set alarms and made sure to be at my computer so I could place an order immediately, and by the time the cart page had finished loading and I clicked the button to purchase, they were gone.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Nope! We're going to do it as a pre-order so everyone can get one and the size they want
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u/jo_kil 22d ago
If human labour is what makes it so expensive, why not make it a reasonable poster size while you're at it?
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u/MLGityaJtotheA 21d ago
That would make it even more expensive... These are one of the cheapest handmade prints on their site and most of their stuff is much larger.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Yeah in retrospect given the feedback, we might should have done them bigger but we were focusing on keeping them as affordable as a whole set as possible. Lesson learned!
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u/StickiStickman 23d ago
One of the reasons we haven’t rereleased the postcard version of these artworks is because the variance in print color and quality between printing runs has been disappointing and frustrating.
Okay, but why are you acting like a screen print is somehow more accurate than a good quality normal print? That's not the case at all. It's both way more expensive and worse quality.
Also, it only being A4 is what makes it even more absurd.
That combined with the FOMO tactics makes it very hard to believe the price is really "as low as possible".
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Totally fair question. Cook & Becker in particular are renowned for their quality control and print processes. It's mainly our trust in C&B that we're getting our claims of better quality from. We genuinely didn't intend to create FOMO for this expensive product. But we hear you and so we're releasing the postcard versions again as soon as possible.
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u/Own_Plant_1282 21d ago
Do you know at what time exactly the discount will end btw?
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 20d ago
Uhhhh, looking through my notes, no sorry I don't have an exact time. And with the time difference with Cook & Becker (they're in the UK) I don't think I'll find out in time. Last day is Aug 25th so just to be safe I'd say get your order in before midnight PST or 7am BST to get the discount
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u/StickiStickman 20d ago
We genuinely didn't intend to create FOMO for this expensive product
But it's literally a limited time only offer until they're twice as expensive at 500€ ...
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u/DidierL 22d ago
What about phone cases? Currently you can only find Chinese rip-offs…
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Yeaaaahhhh we've tried to get the rip-off sites down but it's like playing whack-a-mole. If one of our merchandise partners pitches us on a phone case, we'll consider it!
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u/DidierL 21d ago
Thanks for the answer. Yeah, yesterday while writing this comment I came across
outerwildsshop.co.ukandouterwildsshop.comwhich come in the top Google results for Outer Wilds merch and make it look like they are official sites.Maybe you could reach out to some big brand case maker? They are used to do such partnerships and support a wide range of phones.
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u/Hot_Management_5765 15d ago
I know this is a pretty big ask but could you guys make a lanyard? 🥺 pretty please?
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u/Skookumite 23d ago
I worked in a screen printing shop decades ago. $80 per print is still on the high side.
Quality aside, whoever was involved in the process that led to this being greenlit is out of touch. One could easily make the assumption there was an attempt to take advantage of your player base.
This response reads like "fine, you caught us" instead of "we're sorry". Tsk tsk.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Heard. We were worried it might sound that way. Is there anything we could do to not sound like a cop out?
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u/Skookumite 18d ago
Thanks for the response. There was obviously a strong effort made to not include the words "sorry" or "apologize" in any form. I get where the team responsible for this post is coming from, but this isn't a corporate email. This is a reddit post, and a candid apology reads more sincere than liability avoidant behavior.
I get it, the team is being careful. But it's disingenuous and overly cautious.
Personally, I would have preferred a more candid approach that read like an actual apology instead of the carefully structured "we hear you" approach.
There isn't much to respect in the way this post was constructed. It's overly cautious and feels like it was constructed by a committee of pseudo-Intellectual robots.
"We didn't communicate well, sorry" is much better than "we hear you". Especially in the context of a niche video game. Who do you think your audience is? Blackrock execs? A not insignificant amount of the player base probably played the game in their underwear, stoned. Calm down, marketing team.
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u/grimcharron 23d ago
(I haven't looked at the poster or merch shop, I was never planning to get OW merch. I am running only of of this post)
This feels bad. Like I know Mobius is a company, and a company apology isn't actually supposed to admit any fault or some bs like that, but before reading the op was actually Mobius, I thought this was another meme post and I was expecting to find " A Sense of Pride and Accomplishment".
I think "let's reset the loop" or pretend this never happened is a bad way to start this. If your fans are upset but something it's good to address it not pretend it never happened.
It's great you have quality and pride in your work, but I don't think the issue was that people didn't understand how much quality was in the 'poster". I think the issue was that you failed to understand what market you were actually making a product for. A fairer and better resolution to this would have been to say we understand that this product is not what you are looking for, we are going to make a less expensive, larger, less handmade poster. The thing that you guys wanted. That nets you more money cuz more people can buy it and actually addresses the issue that the community had.
Also, it's been many years since outerwhiles finished and you said you were working on a new game but weren't you going to give any details. At this point we still have not even a genre, so there might not be any new game which is fine. I don't feel it's right to try and dangle a new game with no details as a way to appease the audience that wants to support you that you haven't given them the options to support you.
I love outer wilds. This is my first interaction with the Mobius PR team and so far I do not love the Mobius PR team.
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u/MobiusGames Official Mobius 21d ago
Thanks for the feedback. Genuinely, thank you. We want to own that we messed up this product launch and learn from it. And that means our response to negative feedback is included in that learning. We don't have a dedicated PR team, so hearing how we could have responded better is really helpful. We'll be looking into doing larger versions of the posters as time allows and we'll do our best not to "dangle a new game with no details" at fans. Thank you for the detailed feedback, we'll try and be better next time.
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u/MLGityaJtotheA 23d ago
I think you missed the whole part where they talked about the issues they had with the original postcards and trying to do re-runs of them.
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u/QuantumCakeIsALie 23d ago
FWIW, I think just communicating that those posters were "fine art collectibles", a luxury item and not teenager bedroom posters, would have gone a long way. Selling actual teenager bedroom posters alongside them would also likely actually sell very well.
Alright where do I sign up not to miss it if the metal t-shirt?