Another major Square Enix game made a loss
Outriders developer People Can Fly has revealed the team hasn’t received any royalties since its gory looter shooter launched last year. And the game hasn’t earned publisher Square Enix a profit either.
In its most recent financial report, People Can Fly explains it’s “entitled to royalties” if Square Enix recovers enough of its costs., But as of December 31, it has received no royalties for Outriders. This means “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.”
It’s a genuine shame to hear Outriders hasn’t been more of a success for People Can Fly. On the surface, the game appears to be a drab co-op shooter set in a generic sci-fi world. But the team has made a punchy co-op shooter full of silly fun. Its classes have a suite of ridiculously powerful abilities that can turn your enemies into bloody mulch. A favorite of mine is the Devastator because they can turn themselves into a meteorite and plummet down onto an enemy bursting them into a heavy mist of gizzards.
Outriders looked like it may have become a sleeper hit after it launched on Xbox Game Pass and picked up a sizeable initial audience. Especially as – according to Steam Charts – more than 100,000 people were playing at once on the platform. Clearly, that popularity didn’t convert into profits.
Square Enix has had a string of high-profile misses in recent years – most notably Marvel's Avengers, its huge service game developed by Crystal Dynamics. After years of development, the Avengers looked like it could be as successful as Sony’s Spider-Man games. But it launched to middling reviews and low player numbers. In its 2021 financial report, Square Enix
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