At Kraków-based Bloober Team , a staff , at times exceeding thirty members , developed '' Observer '' with Unreal Engine 4 . By December 2015 , the game was in pre-production with one of two scripts bearing its concept . Development began with the idea of changing the setting from that of the studio 's previous title , '' Layers of Fear '' , to a dystopian society embellished with 1980s and '90s references to Eastern European culture and architecture , and adding in-game propaganda reminiscent of the Soviet Union . Influences included '' Blade Runner '' , '' Cyberpunk 2020 '' , and comic books ; all used so that the game could distinguish itself from American and Japanese cyberpunk . The ever-changing level design in hacking sequences features compression artefact effects . HRZ3D Studio worked on the opening intro ; frameshunter contributed additional animations . The involvement of Rutger Hauer , who plays the lead , was revealed in July 2017 : Hauer had previously starred in '' Blade Runner '' . Arkadiusz Reikowski composed the soundtrack , which was influenced by the music of '' Akira '' , '' Ghost in the Shell '' and '' Blade Runner '' . Reikowski used an analogue synthesizer to keep faithful to the atmosphere , worked with the Polish band Księżyc for the choral music ( using words intended as ominous , alien and ritual ) and employed diegetic music by psytrance artist Mirror Me . Przemek Laszczyk , with whom Reikowski worked on the 2015 video game '' Kholat '' , provided additional ambient music like the tattoo parlour theme . '' Observer '' was unveiled at the PC Gaming Show during E3 2016 . The game was released for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 15 August 2017 , and launched for macOS and Linux on 24 October . Techland published a limited edition in Poland ; Limited Run Games released a physical version for PlayStation 4 in July 2018 . It released for Nintendo Switch on 7 February 2019
E3 2016
E3 2016
Observer (video game)