People Can Fly Still Without Royalties for Outriders 2.5 Years After Release
It will soon be 2.5 years since the release of the shooter Outriders. Its developers, Polish studio People Can Fly, still have not received royalties from sales of the game from Square Enix.
As many of you may know, Square Enix is often dissatisfied with the sales results of the games it publishes. That was the case with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel's Avengers or Forspoken.
Not since today we know that this Japanese company was similarly disappointed by the Polish Outriders. Here, however, the problem seems to go much deeper.
The creators of the game, studio People Can Fly, published a few days ago a financial report for the period from January 1 to June 30, 2023. On the 21st page of the document there is a paragraph that tells us that:
- In accordance with the agreement signed on February 16, 2016 between People Can Fly and Square Enix, starting from the release date of Outriders - i.e. April 1, 2021. - the developer is entitled to royalties;
- their amount depends on the profit made from the sales of the game and is a top-down percentage;
- however, until June 30, 2023. the Polish studio has not received any royalties from the Japanese publisher;
- this means that the net proceeds from the sale of Outriders proved insufficient to offset the costs Square Enix incurred in developing, distributing and promoting the game.
Given that this is not the only game that has disappointed Square Enix financially, it is not surprising that at the beginning of 2023 the company was in the red. It seems that the publisher's bad streak was interrupted by the recent Final Fantasy XVI - its initial sales results are described as "extremely good".
Outriders has been released on PC, PS4, PS5, XOne and XSX/S. The title is also available on PC/Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium.
