The team behind the Outriders, People Can Fly revealed that their RPG shooter didn’t do too well in 2021 despite launching on Xbox Game Pass. Outriders was released back in April 2021 to a rocky start. The game’s online-only model crashed at launch with players losing progress and server issues preventing gamers from playing the game for almost a week after launch. It seems the nasty launch affected game sales and Outriders didn’t make a profit.
New financial reports from People Can Fly confirmed that the game failed to meet its expected revenue. In fact, Square Enix didn’t make any money from the game at all. However, Square Enix, who published the game, did mention last year that Outriders did exceed their expectations – something most of their games fail to do. So this lack of profit news is a stark contrast to that statement.
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Despite its horrible sales, Square Enix is holding onto Outriders. The company is currently letting go of its Tomb Raider and Deus Ex series along with the studios that make these games. However, Square Enix says that the company will keep Outriders on board. If anything, Outriders has performed poorly in comparison to the games Square Enix is selling so we don’t know why the company isn’t flogging it too.
In a statement, People Can Fly commented on the lack of profit saying that the game may never be profitable.
“Since the game was completed and placed on the market (which happened on April 1st 2021), the Company has been entitled to royalties payable if specific proceeds (as defined in the agreement) from its sales ensure that the publisher recovers a predetermined level of costs incurred in connection with the development, promotion and distribution of the game. The level of royalties depends on the amount of specific proceeds from the game’s sales.
The Group received no royalties from the publisher for the period to December 31st 2021, which means that as at the reporting date net proceeds from the sale of Outriders were insufficient to recover the costs and expenses incurred by the publisher to develop, distribute and promote the title.
This was confirmed by the royalty statement for the fourth quarter of 2021, received by the Group from the publisher.
There can be no assurance that net proceeds from the sale of Outriders in future periods will be sufficient for the publisher to recover the costs incurred and to pay royalties to the Group.”
Square Enix also owns the publishing rights and IP for Outriders which means People Can Fly may never get any money for the release of the game.
Outriders is expected to get a new expansion “Worldslayer” next month but that won’t be enough to boost game sales. People Can Fly may refuse to develop future expansions for the game but Square Enix can simply choose other developers to work on them instead.
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Source; People Can Fly
