No Sale Numbers and No Money Isn’t Great
The developers behind Outriders, People Can Fly, has yet to receive any royalties for their game. This suggests that the title has yet to be profitable despite the millions of people who have played it.
This was announced on the developer’s investor website and sheds some light on the People Can Fly’s agreement with Square Enix. Since no funds have yet to be transferred, People Can Fly suggests:
“according to the Publisher, the revenues from the sale of the game are lower than the total costs of its production (including Quality Assurance), distribution and promotion.”
People Can Fly executive Sebastian Wojciechowski (per a machine translation) had this to say:
“We don’t have any sales figures for Outriders – we estimate it at between 2 and 3 million units and assumed that this was a result that would ensure profitability for this project in the first quarter of sales. The lack of payment by the Publisher probably means that, according to Square Enix, this is not the case.”
Wojciechowski thinks some Outriders not being profitable might have to do with deals like Game Pass. He also believes it is possible Square Enix spent more money marketing the game than expected. However, it seems odd that 2-3 million in sales are not profitable for a smaller budget game like Outriders.
People Can Fly is still working on Outriders and has games in the pipeline for Square Enix and Take-Two, as well as a third game they are developing in-house. It seems Wojciechowski isn’t a fan of not getting paid and not knowing why. I can’t say I blame him.
I hope the best for People Can Fly, and I’m thankful they can manage not getting paid for this long. They are currently expecting to get paid later this year, and they seem eager to continue work on Outriders despite this mess.