In a financial holdings briefing, Square Enix told investors that releasing day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass actually worked in Outriders' favor. Outriders managed to generate a lot of buzz in the lead up to its April 1 launch, thanks in large part to an open beta and the Game Pass announcement.
Though some game enthusiasts and pundits voiced doubts about Outriders' potential commercial success, the game seemingly fared well on the market despite the Game Pass rollout. Outriders debuted at number three on the U.S. sales charts for the month of March, though it only counted on the retail calendar for three days. In addition, the People Can Fly shooter managed to break records by becoming Square Enix's biggest launch on Steam - yes, even over Marvel's Avengers. But cursory sales data and internet opinions only mean so much in the grand scheme of things. How has the publisher actually interpreted Outriders' early success?
In mid-May, Square Enix held a financial results briefing that recently received an English translation. The publisher unsurprisingly fielded a question about the response to Outriders, to which an executive answered by admitting the title struggled at launch with bugs and server issues. Still, Square Enix expressed confidence in Outriders marking a "good start [for] a new IP," before explaining that digital sales and the number of active users managed to exceed expectations. The company added that its decision to release the shooter day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass ultimately worked in their favor, particularly with regards to establishing an install base.
This all seems to indicate that Square Enix does indeed consider Outriders a success. What this may entail for the franchise going forward isn't clear as of yet, however. People Can Fly potentially pursuing a sequel doesn't sound beyond the realm of possibility, but who knows how long support for the title as it currently stands may last?
As far as the looter-shooter aspect is concerned, Outriders arguably has more in common with Borderlands than Destiny or The Division due to its more narrative-driven qualities. Thus, it'll be interesting to see how People Can Fly expands upon this facet of the property in future endeavors.
Outriders is available to play now across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.
Source: Square Enix