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Outriders developer People Can Fly has said he doesn’t know how many copies the game has sold and that he hasn’t received any royalties on the game, which suggests he didn’t. has not yet been profitable for publisher Square Enix.
Announced on the developer’s investor website, People Can Fly explained that the deal with Square Enix meant that it would receive royalties for the first quarter of the game on sale by August 16, 2021. No funds have transferred, which People Can Fly suggests that “according to the publisher, revenues from the sale of the game are less than the total costs of its production (including quality assurance), distribution and promotion.”
People Can Fly director Sebastian Wojciechowski (machine translated) added that the company had no firm data for copies sold: was a result that would ensure the profitability of this project in the first quarter of revenue . The lack of payment by the Publisher probably means that, according to Square Enix, this is not the case. “
Wojciechowski also suggests that a lack of profitability could be caused by the publisher, including distribution partnerships (the game launched in Xbox Game Pass, for example), or that Square Enix spent more than expected for the release. This wouldn’t be a unique situation for Square Enix – last year, the publisher announced that Marvel’s Avengers failed to recoup development costs within months of launch.
Wojciechowski added that the game was still in development, People Can Fly expects more promotional work from Square Enix and that “the Outriders game sales lineup is ahead of us.” As a result, the company expects royalties to begin later this year. We reached out to Square Enix for comment.
People Can Fly is currently working on new games for Square Enix and Take-Two, but Wojciechowski says a third new game is in the planning stages, with the developer intending to self-release. It seems to come down, in part, to situations like the Outriders:
“Working with the editor has many advantages, but also its disadvantages”, explained Wojciechowski, “one of them is the low impact of [People Can Fly] on sales activities and incompleteness or – as in this case – the lack of data obtained from the publisher in this regard. This is one of the reasons why, in addition to working with publishers, we have decided to develop projects whose intellectual property will remain the property of the Company and which will be published by the Company. “
Outriders launched in April, and we gave it a review of 7/10, saying its “mix of wickedly fun sci-fi shooting and looting is well worth putting up with its lackluster history and rough edges.” In its first month, it surpassed 3.5 million players, but it’s unclear how many of those players acquired the game through a Game Pass membership, as opposed to a regular sale.
Joe Skrebels is the executive editor of IGN News. Follow him on Twitter. Any advice to give us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
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