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[Draugoth]

As of March 2023, People Can Fly still haven't received royalty payments for its Outriders looter-shooter.

While scouting the publisher's investor relations page, I noticed something interesting: Outriders, the well-received third-person co-op game released in 2021, has yet to turn a profit. Outriders was financed by Square Enix and People Can Fly were to receive royalties if the game broke even. As of March of this year, Square Enix hasn't sent any royalties to People Can Fly.

"Furthermore, in accordance with the development and publishing agreement signed on February 16th 2016 between the parent and Square Enix Limited to develop Outriders, since the game was completed and released on April 1st 2021 the Group is entitled to receive consideration in the form of royalties. Their amount is directly linked to and represents a percentage of the profit earned on the sale of the game.

"The Group received no royalties from the publisher for the period to March 31st 2023, 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."

Via TweakTown

 

[GHG]

So wait, these guys cut a gamepass deal and didn't even ensure it covered the development cost?

What were they thinking?

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Feel bad for the devs. I even bought 2 copies.

 

[Power Pro]

This is kind of a shame, I am usually pretty hard to please, and I actually enjoyed this game. It wouldn't be on any top ten lists for me, but as far as the shooting, and just structure of the game, I enjoyed it. Kinda reminded me of Borderlands, and I didn't hate the story. I still haven't played the expansion, but I did finally buy it a few weeks ago.

 

[Nydius]

Square-Enix as they debated putting the game up on Game Pass (and, later, PS+ Extra/Premium):

Edit:

Feel bad for the devs. I even bought 2 copies.

Same. I bought a retail copy for PlayStation, played via Game Pass on Xbox, then bought a retail Worldslayer complete version on Xbox when the DLC dropped.

SE pulled some super shady shit on PCF here.

 

[[Sigma]]

Square keeping clean books. They got over on you People Can Fly.

 

[Barakov]

Oof. Nobody looks good here. Square pulled some shady stuff but seems like People Can Fly didn't practice due diligence on their end. Still feel bad for PCF here.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

That’s a real shame. I really enjoyed this one, it felt like Diablo with guns to me. I haven’t had a chance to play the expansion yet, might pick this up on sale.

 

[Hot5pur]

Excellent game that I spent over 100 hours with. So much fun and highly recommended. Too bad about PCF and chances for a sequel. The story and gunplay was awesome. The problem was the bugs (inventory/character wipes) it was really a shit show, though fixed now.

 

[8BiTw0LF]

Great game that got better with the free expansion and even better with the Worldslayer expansion. I'd buy a new expansion or a sequel in a heartbeat.

 

[Dthomp]

So wait, these guys cut a gamepass deal and didn't even ensure it covered the development cost?

What were they thinking?

My guess is that they thought way more users buy the games that they play on Gamepass then actually do end up buying them and since Outriders isn't really a play all the time GaaS game people played it, finished it and moved on from the Xbox side. Feel bad for them, I enjoyed the game

 

[GymWolf]

Too bad, some aspects of the game were great.

 

[winjer]

I only played the demo, but I didn't like it.
A shame this game turned out so bland and boring, especially from a studio that made fun games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I think this is more about management not spending money right than the game not selling enough.

 

[Robb]

Too bad. I enjoyed the game a lot, although I will admit I would have never even played it to begin with if it hadn’t been on GamePass.

 

[Drizzlehell]

It wasn't a very good game but god damn, I feel bad for the devs for getting so royally buttfucked.

 

[Merkades]

I don't feel bad for them at all. And I liked the game (as a whole). My Steam page tells me I have 199 hours played, but imo, they deserve it.

I would not be against a sequel should they go for it, but maybe have the game actually work, be offline for SP, not cry like babies on twitter (Literally, one dev was saying they were crying because of the hate from their abysmal launch, as if charging people 60$ so they could *not* play for several days due to their crappy log-in/backend whatever services was not pure BS). WolrdSlayer was ok, but 40$ was too much for what it offered.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I really liked Outriders, so disappointed to hear it didn’t break even.

Probably doesn’t help that the demo is awful.

 

[tusharngf]

so SE took all the money from microsoft?

 

[PaNaMa]

I hate myself for saying this.. but could they not make some cheddar off some sweet sweet in-game cosmetics?

 

[Mr Reasonable]

so SE took all the money from microsoft?

Essentially PCF will have been able to pay the wages and bills during development of the game with SE's money which SE provided on the basis that they'd get that money back from sales of the game.

Because the game hasn't brought in enough money, SE are still out of pocket.

In an ideal situation for them, the game would cover all the dev costs quickly and then then both parties would start profiting from sales. As is, neither of them have done well, but SE are worse off because it actually cost them to do it - at least PCF got paid during development.

That's my read of it.

 

[GymWolf]

I only played the demo, but I didn't like it.
A shame this game turned out so bland and boring, especially from a studio that made fun games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.

Give it a second chance, the beginning is the worst part.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

So wait, these guys cut a gamepass deal and didn't even ensure it covered the development cost?

What were they thinking?

I hope you mean Square when you say “these guys” and not the devs, I highly doubt the devs had any say in what SE did with the game. They seem completely detached from all of it and don’t even know if SE includes the money from the GamePass deal as part of recouping the budget.

Seems they put too much faith in SE.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I hope you mean Square when you say “these guys” and not the devs, I highly doubt the devs had any say in what SE did with the game. They seem completely detached from all of it and don’t even know if SE includes the money from the GamePass deal as part of recouping the budget.

Seems they put too much faith in SE.

The other way of looking at it is Square put too much faith on PCF and thought they were about to produce a massive hit that would make them both lots of money.

 

[Bridges]

What a shame, this game was incredible. A breath of fresh air for a genre that feels like it's overstayed its welcome.

I pray that somehow, someday, a sequel is greenlit.

 

[Team Andromeda]

One of the worst main title games I played in a long time

 

[DenchDeckard]

Completed the main campaign with a friend. Great game. Deserves to earn them some money. Gonna pick it up with the dlc.

 

[Three]

So wait, these guys cut a gamepass deal and didn't even ensure it covered the development cost?

What were they thinking?

MS would never have funded the entire project (what break even would mean here). They would have just made it exclusive at that point if the deal was worth that much.

SE or maybe just PCF banked on sales as well as the upfront payment to cross the break even line which supposedly hasn't happened.

 

[AJUMP23]

PoutRiders

Doubtriders

Cloutriders

 

[ResilientBanana]

Square keeping clean books. They got over on you People Can Fly.

Now Microsoft be like, we gotchu.

 

[SHA]

Is signing up still mandatory for this game to start playing?

 

[Ansphn]

This is one of the reasons why Square will never put another game Day 1 on Gamepass. And why they sold their western studios for making dumb decisions like this.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

This really is too bad as the game is incredibly fun. I can't wait to see what PCF's next project looks like.

 

[Pelta88]

Who else is waiting for the shills to show up to this thread like