The Polish development studio has not yet included any money for Outriders from publisher Square Enix. The reasons for this are unclear
Normally, a developer studio gets money from its publisher when all costs for production, marketing and distribution have been covered – i.e. the game makes a profit. So far, this has not happened in the case of People Can Fly, the developer studio of the co-op shooter Outriders. Why there hasn’t been any profit sharing yet, the developers themselves don’t quite know.
“So far, unfortunately, we don’t know the sales figures of Outriders, we estimate them to be between two to three million units sold” – shared Sebastian Wojciechowski, head of PCF Group, to which the developer studio belongs (via People Can Fly).
Has Outriders not yet recouped its costs?
Wojciechowski had assumed that the revenue already generated was enough to cover all costs. However, this does not seem to be the case, so that Wojciechowski now assumes that Outriders was more expensive in the end than originally assumed.
The reason for this could have been partnerships or higher expenses for production, distribution and marketing on the part of the publisher. The fact that Outriders has been in the Xbox Game Pass since release could also play a role. Without sales figures, however, no concrete statement can be made.
To put it in perspective: In April 2021 alone, around 3.5 million players played Outriders – on Steam there were even over 120,000 simultaneous co-op shooter enthusiasts. The sales figures assumed by Wojciechowski thus seem realistic, despite Game Pass.
Developer still expects payout in 2021
Wojciechowski is optimistic: “Despite the sobering information, we believe we’ll get a first profit payout this year.” Until then, work is to continue on the game.
Currently according to SteamDBup to almost up to 2,000 players are still playing Outriders simultaneously every day on Steam. However, it currently only has 62 percent positive Steam ratings. The main reasons for this are unstable servers and bugs.
So it’s quite possible that People Can Fly will still receive a share of the profits this year.
What about you guys? Have you bought Outriders or are you playing it on Game Pass? Do you still play the co-op shooter regularly? What are your reasons for still playing or taking a break from Outriders? Write us your opinion in the comments.
