People Can Fly is not exactly optimistic about the future of the Outriders.
It has been more than a year since the Polish studio looter-shooter appeared under the care of Square Enix. At first, the Japanese publisher sold it commercially because it talked about three and a half million players last May (but it was certainly distorted by the fact that there was a People Can Fly game in the Xbox Game Pass, too), and Square Enix took it. he said it will be the company’s next big franchise. Let’s roll forward in time and we’ll already get a completely different overall picture.
Already last August, People Can Fly growled because Square Enix didn’t tell them how the Outriders were performing, and now here a financial report from the Polish studio, which states that there is gas: “The Group did not receive royalties from the publisher for the period up to 31 December 2021, which means that at the reporting date the net proceeds from the sale of Outriders were insufficient for the publisher to to reimburse the costs and expenses incurred in connection with the development, distribution and promotion of This was confirmed by the royalty statement for the fourth quarter of 2021, which the Group received from the publisher. ”
In English: People Can Fly did not make a profit, so Outriders did not make a profit in one year. So they’re not in the mood to develop a DLC, but the Outriders Worldslayer is coming out this year. But there is no optimism: “There is no assurance that the net proceeds from the sale of the Outriders will be sufficient in future periods for the publisher to reimburse the costs incurred and royalties to the Group.”
And this is proof that in the case of a live service, live service model game, it is not necessary to pay attention to how many players the product has after the start, but how much interest there is in the long run. Chances are not much (and that’s about Square Enix’s OTHER live service game, Babylon’s Fall, developed by PlatinumGames, and there’s Marvel’s Avengers from Crystal Dynamics, which was sold to the Embracer Group… LOL).
For this reason, it is no wonder they are focusing on Project Geminire. This will also be done in conjunction with Square Enix and will be similar in size to the Outriders. Its completion is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. Maybe this will make their money too…
Source: PCGamer
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