Outriders Was Not Profitable In 2021
Originally launched in April 2021, People Can Fly's Outriders was published by Square Enix and attempted to position itself as a kind of alternative to the various live-service looter shooters, such as Destiny 2. Unlike most of its competition, it offered no microtransactions or battle passes, but this doesn't seem to have been the silver bullet that Square Enix may have been hoping for.
Namely, People Can Fly's latest financial report suggests that Outriders hasn't been profitable for the studio at all through the entirety of 2021, even though it managed to pull in over 3.5 million players in the first month of its release. This information isn't outright spelled out in the report, but the document describes the nature of the royalty system Square Enix had in place for Outriders.
Outriders Shows Off New Worldslayer Legendary Weapon and Stigmatized Mod
The new financial report coming from People Can Fly was foreshadowed just a few months following the game's release, when it became apparent that Outriders had yet to break even. As the report explains, the company was entitled to royalty payments should Outriders sell well enough, and these were nowhere to be seen following the game's biggest heyday. The new document underlines this further still, saying that it's all but certain that Square Enix won't be able to recoup the investment it made in People Can Fly to develop, market, and publish the game.
After the initial reports came out, Outriders CEO explained that the situation was expected so early on in the game's lifetime, and that it would take some time before the project could break even, and for the royalties from Square Enix to start pouring in. Of course, it's worth pointing out that these are royalties,
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