People Can Fly

People Can Fly is a developer and publisher.

People Can Fly Webpage, Facebook

People Can Fly is an independent Polish game studio founded in 2002 that makes games for PC and consoles. From 2007 to 2015, it was owned by Epic Games, the well-known American game developer and publisher, and between 2013 and 2015 it operated under the name Epic Games Poland. In August 2015, the studio became independent again and went back to its original name. Sebastian Wojciechowski has been the company's president since 2012. Although the group's main headquarters is in Warsaw, it also has branches in other Polish cities as well as abroad.

Over the years, People Can Fly has specialized in making fast-paced first-person shooters, with major titles like Bulletstorm and the early installments of the Painkiller series, released between 2004 and 2006. As part of Epic Games, the studio helped develop the popular Unreal Engine and worked on many of the company's projects. The biggest titles the studio created for Epic Games were the PC port of the hit console game Gears of War (2007) and the 2013 series spin-off Gears of War: Judgment.

The history of People Can Fly

Period of independence

People Can Fly was founded in February 2002 by Andrzej Poznanski, Michal Kosieradzki, and Adrian Chmielarz - a true legend of Polish game development and co-founder of Metropolis Software, established in 1992. The studio's debut game was the fast-paced first-person shooter Painkiller, released worldwide by Dreamcatcher Interactive. Modeled after classic shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament, the title was a big success. In the following years, the same publisher released the official Battle Out of Hell expansion and an Xbox port of the original, called Painkiller: Hell Wars.

Another project People Can Fly worked on was Come Midnight, developed with THQ, which blended adventure, detective thriller, and survival horror elements. The noir-themed story about an investigator who could communicate with the dead was canceled due to THQ's severe financial troubles. Interestingly, its original concept was later reused in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014), the debut game from The Astronauts, a studio founded by Adrian Chmielarz.

Under Epic Games' wing

After the success of Painkiller, the studio had to decide whether to continue developing its own graphics engine or use one from a third-party company. They chose Epic Games' Unreal Engine, which led to a partnership with the renowned American developer and publisher. After seeing the demo, Epic Games hired the Polish team to work on a PC port of their console hit, Gears of War (2007). A year later, People Can Fly also helped develop the second installment of the game. Pleased with the collaboration, Epic Games decided to buy a portion of People Can Fly's shares, gradually increasing their stake over the following years, which eventually led to a full acquisition.

In August 2008, Epic Games announced that Electronic Arts would publish People Can Fly's next title. That game, a fast-paced shooter, was finally released on PC and consoles in 2011 as Bulletstorm. The title, sharing a similar vibe with their debut Painkiller, became another big success for the team and one of the most recognized Polish games worldwide. Another fun feature was the free promotional minigame Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, a parody of the popular Call of Duty series and some common clichés of modern first-person shooters. On June 1st, 2012, it was announced that People Can Fly's next project would be a spin-off in the popular Gears of War series, which turned out to be Gears of War: Judgment (2013), released the following March.

On August 13th, 2012, Epic Games acquired People Can Fly entirely. On the same day, Adrian Chmielarz, unhappy with the loss of independence, left the team, along with the other two co-founders. Sebastian Wojciechowski stepped in as president. On November 1st, 2013, People Can Fly changed its name to Epic Games Poland and, in the following months, worked on various projects for the parent company, playing a key role in developing the next generation of Unreal Engine 4.

Back to independence

Despite the successful partnership with Epic Games, over time the role of "support developer" no longer satisfied the ambitious creators of the former People Can Fly. The breakthrough came on June 24th, 2015, when the team announced that after nearly two years as Epic Games Poland, it was returning to its original name and logo, becoming independent once again. Even after parting ways with Epic Games, People Can Fly continued collaborating with their previous owner, helping develop games like Fortnite and the mobile title Infinity Blade III from ChAIR Entertainment. At the same time, it announced that it was working on two entirely new first-person shooter projects, one of which turned out to be a remastered version of the studio's biggest hit, Bulletstorm, originally released in 2011. Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition was released on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in April 2017, published by Gearbox Publishing. In August 2019, the game was released on the Nintendo Switch as Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition.

Problematic Outriders

The official announcement of People Can Fly's next game didn't come until E3 2019. At that event, the team unveiled Outriders, a cooperative (but also playable solo) sci-fi shooter with RPG elements, built on Unreal Engine 4 and published by Square Enix. In February 2020, it was announced that the game would launch not only on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, but also on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The developers also revealed that its release had been pushed back from summer to late 2020. In October 2020, it was announced that Outriders' release had been postponed to February 2nd, 2021.

Meanwhile, in July 2020, People Can Fly revealed that, alongside Outriders, they were working on another AAA project aimed at ninth-generation consoles, PCs, and streaming platforms. The game was set to be developed mainly by the studio's New York branch, in collaboration with teams in Warsaw, Rzeszów, and Newcastle. It was planned to be published by Take-Two Interactive. The collaboration between People Can Fly and Square Enix went so well that in the fall of 2020, the team announced a third AAA project, which - like Outriders - was intended to be published by the Japanese company. At the time, the only detail revealed about the game was that it was planned to launch before the end of 2024.

Outriders itself finally went on sale on April 1st, 2021. The game ended up being surprisingly popular. On release day, nearly 112,000 people were playing it on Steam alone, and for two weeks after launch it held the top spot on the platform's bestseller list. The game was received fairly well by reviewers, with average Metacritic scores above 70% (depending on the platform). Despite its strong popularity and decent critical success, the project struggled with various technical problems and other issues, including toxic player behavior. However, the developers quickly began working on patches.

Dynamic growth

On April 26th, 2021, People Can Fly announced that it had acquired the Chicago-based American studio Phosphor Games. The team, known for games like The Brookhaven Experiment and Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron, would from then on operate as People Can Fly Chicago. Its mission was to boost the Polish company's presence in the United States and help in "building People Can Fly as a global brand". Just one day later, on April 27th, 2021, People Can Fly announced the acquisition of Game On, a studio specializing in motion capture, sound, and film production. It's worth noting that the two companies had been collaborating for a long time, including on Outriders, and under the new ownership, Game On was to retain full independence.

On December 13th, People Can Fly completed its third acquisition of 2021. This time, it was the Polish studio Incuvo, whose controlling stake People Can Fly acquired from the Estonian OÜ Blite Fund. Under the new ownership, Incuvo was set to develop a then-unannounced project for virtual reality headsets. This mysterious project was scheduled to release before the end of 2023.

June 2022 saw the launch of the first major expansion for Outriders, titled Worldslayer. The add-on introduced a new story campaign along with several changes to the game's mechanics. The expansion was fairly well received by the gaming press (though Metacritic scores averaged below 80/100), but players reacted much more lukewarmly, with it earning "mostly negative" reviews on Steam.

Nevertheless, People Can Fly continued to expand. In November 2022, the company opened a new branch in Krakow, Poland, to work on a project codenamed Red. At the time, People Can Fly was reported to employ over 600 people. In January 2023, People Can Fly revealed its plans for the future. These announcements showed that the team would experiment with different monetization models and game genres. Although details about the seven new projects at the time remained under wraps, in June we learned that the company had entered into a partnership with Microsoft. Its outcome was expected to be a production representing the brand of the Redmond giant, with a budget estimated between $30 and $50 million. In July, People Can Fly announced that in 2022 it had opened another branch, this time in Montreal, which was working on a mysterious AAA game.

People Can Fly's winning streak continued, even though in September 2023 the team announced that Square Enix had failed to pay royalties for Outriders to its creators. Since the agreement between the developer and publisher stipulated that royalties would depend on the profits generated by the game, it was reasonable to assume that the project hadn't turned a profit.

Review of future plans

In January 2024, it was officially confirmed that more than 30 people had left People Can Fly. The layoffs affected the team working on an unannounced project codenamed Project Gemini, which was set to be published by Square Enix. Adam Alker, Development Director at People Can Fly, said this was due to "budgetary constraints" and the "reduced scale" of the overall project. Another twenty people were also removed from Project Gemini, but were reassigned to other People Can Fly projects.

In September 2023, Take-Two Interactive decided to withdraw from the collaboration on the mysterious Project Dagger, first announced in July 2020. Although the Polish team initially stated it would self-publish the game, it was announced in November that the project would be delayed and revised. Ultimately, it was canceled in April 2024.

The problems People Can Fly faced didn't end there. In December 2024, the studio announced that because it was unable to secure roughly 96 million dollars to maintain its current scale of operations, PCF was forced to lay off over 120 employees, suspend work on the Victoria project, and scale back the Bifrost project. However, these changes were not expected to impact the studio's other projects: Gemini (developed for Square Enix), Maverick (developed for Microsoft), and Echo (developed for Krafton).

Gradual recovery

January 2025, however, brought much more positive news from People Can Fly. At the end of that month, it was announced that the studio would assist The Coalition in developing Gears of War: E-Day. The Polish team was thus set to return to co-creating the franchise that had marked the start of their journey with Epic Games.

In March 2025, PCF announced that it had partnered with Sony Interactive Entertainment to develop a prototype for a new game, codenamed Project Delta, based on one of the Japanese company's brands. Shortly after, the studio also revealed that it was resuming work on Project Victoria, with an Early Access release planned for 2025. These announcements caused a significant rise in the company's stock value.

Interestingly, these weren't the only tricks People Can Fly had up its sleeve. On March 20th, 2025, the Polish team revealed one of its previously hidden projects and announced Lost Rift, a survival-extraction first-person shooter.

However, this didn't mean the end of People Can Fly's troubles. At the beginning of June 2025, it was reported that the team had been forced to cancel two projects: Gemini and Bifrost. This was reportedly due to communication issues between the publisher and developer, as well as financial problems that threatened the completion of the Bifrost project. The aftermath of all this required a "regrouping" of the studio and an unspecified number of layoffs.