Square Enix believes Outriders Xbox Game Pass launch has paid off

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
www.videogameschronicle.com

Square Enix believes Outriders’ Xbox Game Pass launch has paid off | VGC

Company says digital sales ratio is “very high” and active users beat expectations…
www.videogameschronicle.com www.videogameschronicle.com

It is one of the highest profile third-party games so far to arrive on the service on the day of its release, and Square Enix believes the boost to the online shooter's player count means the decision was justified.

"In regards to the response to Outriders, while there were slight issues with bugs and the like on launch, we believe it has gotten off to a good start as a new IP," Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda said during the company's full year financial results briefing on May 13 (the comments have only today been published in English).

"In addition, we have been pleasantly surprised as the digital sales ratio for the title have been very high, and the number of active users has also beaten our expectations.

"We believe that our decision to make Outriders available with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass as soon as the title launched also worked in our favor. (to build an installed base for the game)," he added.

In an article published on VGC on Thursday, Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said certain games appear well suited to Xbox Game Pass – and Outriders ticked a lot of the boxes.

"Certain types of day one games are particularly suited to Game Pass – generally, those that benefit more from a ready-made audience compared to just competing with other premium releases in the Microsoft Store," the analyst wrote.

"These include games based on new IP, smaller independent titles, those that are service-based and monetise in-game, online multiplayer titles, or those that might struggle to gain exposure versus the biggest AAA games."
 
Inb4 quarantined

Nice to see some word from Square on it. It was up on the charts on places like Steam and PS despite the GP addition for console. PCF should've had a better end game monetization plan to capitalize though.
 
south park GIF


This may hurt the narrative, but Gamepass is the best possible home for A and AA games. It just so happens I love swimming in 7s.
 
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Hopefully the info Square got from this and the FF releases makes them take a long look at how to better support Xbox as a platform.
 
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
Gamepass paid them up front. Good.

The exposure lead to more sales on PSN. Good.
 
It was a fun game, but the endgame didn't interest me, bugs didn't help either (no coop because of the fear of losing gear)
But overall I consider it a good game and it was worth my time, but glad I didn't pay $60 for it...
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
Why come in with big bold letters on UK numbers for physical sales? It's weird seeing UK numbers always being used as some sort of gotcha. Of course physical sales will be higher for PS when PS is more popular and Xbox favors digital + it was on game pass.

Square doesn't owe any of us the discreet numbers and breakdown of goals and expectations. They say they were satisfied and especially commented on DIGITAL sale numbers which makes a physical sales from UK useless.
 
this game would have struggled big time if not for gamepass.
i bought it anyway because i am a loot whore.
And this game so far is my surprise of the year,

I enjoyed it WAY more then i think i would.
the endgame is absolute sheit tho
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
I mean most Xbox gamers have gamepass sooooo it would be kinda weird if that percentage was any different lol


sale number comparisons for success is pointless now with both platforms focusing on different streams for content.
 
Iced Arcade said:
I mean most Xbox gamers have gamepass sooooo it would be kinda weird if that percentage was any different lol


sale number comparisons for success is pointless now with both platforms focusing on different streams for content.
Click to expand...
depends on the what microsoft payed Square for those downloads. Square could be getting money from a GPASS download that would have never been a sale and still collecting money on regular sales . At that point its just icing on the cake.
 
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+another 1. 🤭 🤞

Releasing a new IP like Outriders on a service like Game Pass could be a risky gamble. Fortunately for Square Enix, the bet paid off. Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda says digital sales for Outriders have skyrocketed and player counts are beyond the publisher's expectations--Game Pass isn't the only factor, though, and the game's Steam playerbase was huge at launch. In short, Outriders is a success.

"While there were slight issues with bugs and the like on launch, we believe it has gotten off to a good start as a new IP. In addition, we have been pleasantly surprised as the digital sales ratio for the title have been very high, and the number of active users has also beaten our expectations. We believe that our decision to make Outriders available with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass as soon as the title launched also worked in our favor to build an installed base for the game," Matsuda said in a Q&A session with investors.

 
Pretty much, putting side the poor launch with multiplayer issues.
I still play it now, got 2 characters at end game and I'm hoping they have DLC eventually to expand on it.
 
Gamepass is the future, whether you like it or not. Square is the first to go. Now Bandai Namco, its your turn. Elden ring day1
Super League Money GIF by Anderson .Paak


Please don't make me this
Monkey Oops GIF by AFV Pets
 
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I'm more interested in whether Outriders 2 will be on GamePass day one. It does make sense to put things on there if you want to build an install/fan base. But if it already has that, then does it still make sense? Maybe, I certainly don't know. I still doubt I will go GamePass though (PC version that is, I don't have and won't buy an Xbox, because I have a nice PC).
 
But i was told that it[gp] cannibalises sales, does this mean that's neogaf experts were wrong? you cannot trust anyone anymore. What is next? I will find out that Xbox has games? This is madness. /s

crazy madness GIF
 
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Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
You are comparing 1 region with global figures... That doesn't make sense. You don't have a clue if the UK is representsable for the rest of the world.
 
Top 3 most played games at launch, it is currently in the top 30 most played now on xbox. (UK)

Also Yakuza:Like a dragon has cracked the top 50 (29 currently) (UK)
 
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Helghan said:
You are comparing 1 region with global figures... That doesn't make sense. You don't have a clue if the UK is representsable for the rest of the world.
Click to expand...

The ps5 has sold thtough almost twice more globally than xbx ser and ps4 was at 112 plus million ..several months ago ....
And game pass subscribers are at 23 million

So it's pretty easy to conclude that there are 5 times more ps players to account for in the equation while comparing to "satisfied gamepass numbers" and even with recently released RE8 was 80% on PS consoles....

It's pretty easy to conclude majority of players are on PS..

If the numbers were flipped I am sure SE would have stated GP generated more players ... hiding numbers is just a thank MS for the cheque...
 
Max_Po said:
The ps5 has sold thtough almost twice more globally than xbx ser and ps4 was at 112 plus million ..several months ago ....
And game pass subscribers are at 23 million

So it's pretty easy to conclude that there are 5 times more ps players to account for in the equation while comparing to "satisfied gamepass numbers" and even with recently released RE8 was 80% on PS consoles....

It's pretty easy to conclude majority of players are on PS..

If the numbers were flipped I am sure SE would have stated GP generated more players ... hiding numbers is just a thank MS for the cheque...
Click to expand...
But your link of 80% was in retail, right? So if outriders was on game pass you already have a huge number of Xbox players that don't buy it physically, but just download it.

Besides all of that, I do think that most players are on PS. There are just more PS users than Xbox.
 
Helghan said:
You are comparing 1 region with global figures... That doesn't make sense. You don't have a clue if the UK is representsable for the rest of the world.
Click to expand...
Also UK retail sales are a really small amount of games. Outriders is lucky if it sold 20k copies that week. Compare that to 3.5m players.
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
Try looking up the average numbers UK physical sales next time before tripping, spewing out percentage like that matters.
 
Bernd Lauert said:
Also UK retail sales are a really small amount of games. Outriders is lucky if it sold 20k copies that week. Compare that to 3.5mre players.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry but what is wrong with 20k copies in a week? Aren't you the one going on about outriders on steam? You keep saying steam is where it sold most.
It had what 125k players on steam in a MONTH.
3.5 million unique players and most of them aren't on steam and the player base dwindled

OUTRIDERS - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.
steamcharts.com steamcharts.com
 
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I think for a game like Outriders (or Avengers or Gotham knights etc) having a sufficient user base at launch is so critical that it makes sense to go for GP / PS+ or equivalent. You guarantee that some people will try it and that you won't be a bust at launch, which is almost impossible to recover from.

Another thing is that Outriders is a genuinely good shooter, I find it a lot more fun to play than Destiny for example. It rewards aggressive play, it's fast, smooth, responsive. If a game is bad, you won't get any traction even if you put it on GP/PS+.
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
How many physical units would you guess were sold in the UK?
10k?
20k?
 
Three said:
I'm sorry but what is wrong with 20k copies in a week?
Click to expand...
Release week. In subsequent weeks, it sold way less.
Three said:
Aren't you the one going on about outriders on steam? You keep saying steam is where it sold most.
It had what 125k players on steam in a MONTH.
Click to expand...
You're reading it wrong. It had 125k concurrent players at its peak. That means players logged in and playing the game at the same time. It had many, many more buyers obviously.
 
Helghan said:
You are comparing 1 region with global figures... That doesn't make sense. You don't have a clue if the UK is representsable for the rest of the world.
Click to expand...
According to neogaf, UK and Japan are what console hardware and game sales are for the world.

I am honestly sick of this UK shit. Like, I ain't living in UK, so those data are useless. Same for Japan.
 
Well for such game, I guess they are right. Promote it "freely" than tempt the users to buy it when it's not more available.
 
Fartynoob said:
According to neogaf, UK and Japan are what console hardware and game sales are for the world.

I am honestly sick of this UK shit. Like, I ain't living in UK, so those data are useless. Same for Japan.
Click to expand...
I used to feel the same about NPD in the 360/PS3 era and that really didn't mean jack
 
Max_Po said:
I wish they would share more details

From the article

"The game attracted over 3.5 million unique players between its April 1 release and May 1, according to internal data from its publisher, although it didn't break down the figure at all or comment on Xbox Game Pass specifically at the time, so it remains unclear what percentage of the player base the service's subscribers account for."


And then there is "

"83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles"


www.thegamer.com

83% Of Physical Outriders UK Sales Were On PlayStation Consoles

This doesn't include digital purchases or people who downloaded the game via Xbox Game Pass.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com

So what exactly was there expectations?
Click to expand...
Who cares about the sales of a single country ?

The company who made the game is telling you they are happy with Gamepass, that's all you need to know.
 
cireza said:
Who cares about the sales of a single country ?

The company who made the game is telling you they are happy with Gamepass, that's all you need to know.
Click to expand...
And they tell that to their shareholders, the only ones they would not take any risk lying to.

Looking forward to more day 1 3rd party games on top of the already absurd selection of 1st party games :lollipop_grinning_sweat: .
 
TGO said:
I used to feel the same about NPD in the 360/PS3 era and that really didn't mean jack
Click to expand...
We are in digital age now. People buy their games digitally. Physical games will due out soon. We can scream about it in the internet, but once those companies see no financial incentive, they will drop it soon. To them, Physical copies is a hassle, compared to digital sales.
 
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