Outriders was a pretty big deal when it launched on Xbox Game Pass in April 2021. The shared world co-op shooter from developer People Can Fly seemed to get off to a decent start, thanks in part to big player numbers on Xbox Game Pass. However, new details paint a slightly different picture.
A report from TweakTown lays out the game's success and People Can Fly's royalty payments, or lack thereof. Basically, the developer says that according to Square Enix, the game hasn't made enough money for them to receive any royalties.
"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."
What's more, Square Enix has obtained the Outriders IP from People Can Fly, with the publisher deciding not to sell it to Embracer Group as part of that particular sale. In theory, that means Square Enix can make more Outriders content without the original developer on board.
For now though, People Can Fly is heads down on its big 'Worldslayer' expansion for Outriders, which almost looks like a relaunch of the game. Look out for it on June 30th.
Did you enjoy Outriders on Game Pass? Surprised to see that it didn't break even? Let us know in the comments.
[source tweaktown.com]
Comments 24
Was bored after finishing the story. Withous Game Pass many people would have ignored this game.
I will be honest if I didn't have Gamepass I would have never known this game existed or even played it.
the 10hs i played i enjoyed it. Not sure why i stopped the game tbh. might come back at one point
Go buy people can fly Microsoft, I think they would blend in very well with the coalition for sure.
Talented and creative developer, I thought Outriders was better than similar games such as Division, fingers crossed for them, they can secure a deal that makes them profitable.
TBH, from the little bit I played, the gameplay wasn't engaging (for me) and some of the voice acting was... not good (to put it politely).
It's a shame, as a strong new IP would always be welcome.
PCFs Bulletstorm deserved more attention than it got, but that's long dead now.
Hopefully PCF will move on to better things, as I believe there's some talent there waiting to be unleashed 👍
@fabisputza007 ha! This sums up how I feel.
Defo a good developer ...Xbox should buy them....I was enjoying playing the game doing the side missions and all but then I just stopped playing for some reason...I planned to return and never did ...then to much time had passed...I do that alot nowadays...I blame gamepass to many games lol
I went from playing this on Xbox One X to getting a Series X and continuing the story, it was a big jump to 60 fps from 30 fps with dips and ran smooth. Thought it was an excellent looter shooter in the gears mould. Hope the expansion has a meaty length
I'm sure I read an article last year about how PCF received no money from the Game Pass deal. Something about they only receive royalties from "sales" of the game so SE kept all the money from the game pass deal. Pretty scummy move if so.
I really enjoyed the game, the New Horizons update was excellent, gave me a reason to jump back in and try new builds/classes. The lore and world building was top notch in my opinion for a new IP. Looking forward to the Worldslayer DLC and shall be jumping in day one.
I enjoyed EVERY moment of Outriders. Looking forward to expansion.
The issue with Game Pass is that 3rd Party Publishers can screw over their developers and prevent them from getting any Royalties/Bonuses. That's not a fault of MS/Game Pass, that's down to the 'unscrupulous' way the 3rd party publisher handles their Developers.
Its obvious to me that if a game is offered via a Subscription service, that MANY of those on that platform will not BUY the game - certainly not whilst that game remains in that service - I know I am one.
However, if Square Enix set the 'Bonus' at 8m SALES for example and they only sell 4m despite having 20m players, that gives Square Enix an excuse not to pay the Developers their fair share and potentially make more money for themselves as a result (depending on what they negotiated with MS - they could get more money based on Player numbers)
Having a 'reasonable' idea of the way Square Enix is run, the expectations and potential loopholes they can find to screw the devs, I wouldn't be at all surprised that they set them a 'high' Sales target to meet, then negotiated with MS to release on Game Pass so that the Devs would struggle to meet that Target.
Its clear that independent devs who negotiate directly with MS have benefited greatly from Game Pass, surpassing their expectations both financially and in terms of player reach. I bet People can Fly are happy with the 'reach' of Outriders (they did say they were) but were 'kept in the dark' about how 'financially' successful it was and more reliant on SALES than players to get their Financial reward.
I enjoyed playing through the campaign - entirely Solo. Never played the 'end game' or pushed to maximise my world level as that seemed to be where playing Co-operatively comes in. Maybe I'll jump back in at some point...
Its an enjoyable game and its NOT like Destiny - it more like a looter RPG version of Gears of War with 'powers' than an Online Live Service game
Theres a disgusting full price expansion coming up at 70$
Didnt someone in the Outriders dev team insist they had evidence that the game was played in so many people's hands that it made no sense that it was unprofitable?
I have a feeling there is some creative accounting stuff going on to inflate marketing expenses paid to self [square] so they can avoid paying any royalties. This is a practice very common in Hollywood when movie studios want to avoid paying taxes "the movie made all those billions but we also spent even more billions on promoting it!!!"
So Square sells off its western studios. Retains only a few Western products, and highlights in the sale that they're retaining publishing rights for Outriders. Then they report that Outriders has not actually made any money.
Is anyone else finding this a very improbable business scenario?
I said it the other day, and have said it on and off for years what @Tharsman said above. There's without question creative accounting going on at Square.
I also still believe some of their creative account revolves around the sale of their western studios. I'm now more convinced than ever they managed to stuff the sold portions of the company with the combined debts of the rest of the company, which suppressed the purchase price of the studios and brands to the weirdly low 300m, and probably contains debt magnitudes beyond that.
This should make the rest of square more attractive for a buyout, however, if they're promoting that the assets the have are unprofitable, I'm not sure if they're trying to make themselves attractive, or utterly undesirable...
@NEStalgia exactly what i thought.
there is no reason to keep a product you say its not profitable and also put more money to make expansion.
lets be real here, when SE want to delete a game they doing it even without making patch to fix problems.
also we already heard in the past that outriders did good but the kind of ***** PCF with the xbox deal.
all i can hope is that microsoft would buy PCF in the future bc those devs know how to make games, sadly i cant see them going out with the ip and i think OR is like destiny and TD but better (played both for years)
Average games won't survive. Even if they're "Free". Very competitive to be average these days.
Wonder how Final Fantasy XIV is going to far seeing as it's coming out on a system that recently has been outsold by their competitions and has made the game exclusive to former market leader.
Personally, when I first tried Outriders during the public beta, the game seemed a ton of fun. The missions were exciting, the gameplay was familiar, and the progression was fluid. I was genuinely excited about playing Outriders once it launched.
Honestly, the reason why I forgot about Outriders was due to its absolutely horrendous launch. I couldn't sign in, couldn't play, couldn't advance, couldn't do anything. For weeks, I tried and tried, but ultimately, just gave up.
Once the servers stabilized, all that excitement that I had from the beta just died. There was no reason for me to try again, even though I'm a Game Pass subscriber. My reasoning? "Why bother when I have many more gamers that aren't plagued with this issue?" I imagine that's what ultimately did Outriders in. The servers coupled with a lack of progression, formulaic gameplay (though exciting at first) didn't give a reason for many of us to come back and give it another go. And, now, a full priced expansion? Please.
@SplooshDmg "netease" omg I just gagged a bit. Please buy square, Sony!
@Ashadelo I think it will be an interesting portent. I don't think the ps audience is necessarily a big ff audience anymore. Not that I think Xbox necessarily is, either. Sony is probably paying them enough for the difference not to matter, but ff has been multiplat since PS3, and I'm not sure the majority of new customers since then are really the ff crowd. And I'm not sure if it's really for the ff crowd anymore either. Pretty sure switch did the best for the psx remasters.
If Sony is paying enough and doesn't prohibit PC, it won't hurt square though, I think.
Forespoken otoh, I have a feeling that will go down like Deathloop except without the critical praise and award nominations.
Square Enix fund a new Yuji Naka game but then remove him from the project, release an unfinish game and fire Mr Naka. Square Enix buy Western studios, neglect them and sell them but keep People Can Fly and plan a full-price expansion but now say that their game is not profitable. Who's in charge and do they manage a video games company as a casino?
gone are the days when 1 million copies sold was celebrated a million copies is a failure nowdays
Didn't help that SE* frequently put the game on sale for like $20 in my country — even as early as summer 2021. They wanna make profit? Have a little more faith in a product's potential for greater profit margins; i.e. treat your customers' wallets with more respect, and make a good game that engages us immediately and for the long-term (but without being immediately cheapened to <60% MSRP to capitalize on sales discounts).
@Banjo- they've been saying that this game hasn't been profitable since last summer.
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