Outer Wilds Switch: Price, Download Size, and Gameplay

Is Outer Wilds Available on Nintendo Switch?

Yes—Outer Wilds Switch launched on December 7, 2023, bringing its solar-system mystery to handheld, tabletop, and TV play. Its changing planets make timing part of every expedition: reaching a place matters, but so does arriving before the landscape transforms. Expect a single-player exploration adventure where reading clues and observing your surroundings drive the investigation.

Developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive, the game casts you as a new recruit in Outer Wilds Ventures. Your assignment sends you into space to investigate ancient ruins, strange signals, and a solar system caught in a repeating time loop.

Price and Where to Buy

The digital base game has a regular US price of $24.99. A 40% discount brings it to $14.99, with the sale ending November 19, 2026, at 4:59 p.m. UTC.

Image: Steam / Mobius Digital

You can buy Outer Wilds for Nintendo Switch through Nintendo’s official store. Select the digital Outer Wilds edition for the base game.

The Switch release date is separate from the game’s June 18, 2020, Steam release. For Nintendo players, December 7, 2023, is the relevant launch date.

Download Size, Play Modes, and Cloud Backup

The Nintendo Switch download requires 6.1 GB of storage. Make room for that download before purchasing if your system storage or microSD card is nearly full.

Image: Steam / Mobius Digital

Supported play modes include:

• TV mode: Play with the system docked.
• Tabletop mode: Use the system’s screen while playing with detached controllers.
• Handheld mode: Explore with the system in your hands.

American English is supported, alongside Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Save Data Cloud backup requires a Nintendo Switch Online membership, sold separately. Keep that requirement in mind if cloud backup is part of how you manage your games.

How the Time-Loop Mystery Plays

Each loop lasts 22 minutes, putting a time limit on your expeditions. Exploration is nonlinear: you choose where to travel, investigate points of interest, and connect discoveries across different locations.

The planets change during that window. An underground city can disappear beneath sand, while another world’s surface breaks apart beneath your feet. These transformations affect access, turning the time of your visit into part of the puzzle.

Travel also connects planetary surfaces and deep space seamlessly. Each planet has its own orbit and gravity field, making flying between destinations part of the experience.

Your equipment helps you investigate rather than simply move around. You can track mysterious signals, examine your surroundings, and decipher ancient alien writing. Much of the challenge comes from interpreting those discoveries and working out how they relate to places you have already encountered.

The ancient Nomai are central to that investigation: you piece together information about the events leading up to their extinction. Dark Bramble and alien ruins on the Moon give you more questions to pursue as you explore the solar system.

Spoiler-Light Tips Before Your First Flight

• Equip your spacesuit before leaving the ship. Forgetting it can end an expedition, and you need to put it on again during each loop.
• Check your oxygen before venturing farther. Hazardous environments make preparation part of exploring.
• Return at a different time when a route changes. Sand and collapsing terrain can alter what you can reach during a loop.
• Use your investigative gadgets. Follow signals and translate writing when a location leaves you with more questions than answers.
• Look for connections between destinations. A clue in one location can help explain how to reach something elsewhere.
• Try another lead before opening a walkthrough. Observation and lateral thinking are central to the puzzles; give an unanswered question another expedition before reading its solution.