Outriders turned more than a few heads when the development studio People Can Fly, backed by Square Enix, released a playable demo on February 25. With aggressive play across four classes, authentic dialogue guiding players across a ravaged planet, and tailorable difficulty that promises greater rewards for shouldering additional risk, the title seems to hold great promise, and the developer has stated that it wants "to be open, honest, and upfront" about Outriders.
This includes its clear statement regarding what players can expect from the upcoming third-person looter-shooter: no microtransactions, no games-as-a-service, no inclusion of Denuvo Anti-Tamper, and a full cross-play experience. With an April 1 release date and a consumer-friendly stance on monetization strategy, it's difficult not to be even slightly excited about the possibilities that the full game has to offer. What players don't realize, however, is that the updates are already under development based on demo feedback.
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People Can Fly is taking advantage of gamers eagerly diving into the science-fiction storyline through the free-to-play demo (which saves progress for the full game). For the month-long gap between demo and title release, the developers are crafting patches for both balance-tweaking and bug-squashing. The first of these patches was released today for PlayStation platforms and PC, with the Xbox consoles receiving their patch later next week.
While the developers from People Can Fly and Square Enix are hard at work, the official Outriders Twitter account hasn't been sitting on its haunches either. The Twitter account has been conveying information to players when their matchmaking services are struggling under heavy load, encouraging feedback from players regarding the demo, and announcing workarounds for possible crashes so people can explore everything the demo has to offer. The only sticking point thus far from fans has been a consistent mention of long loading times on last generation consoles.
Granted, offering demos with a heap of content while claiming transparency isn't enough to make a title strong. Multiple titles have had demos prior to their release that managed to still disappoint and frustrate users with gameplay loops and seemingly ad-hoc mechanics; Amazon's Crucible readily comes to mind, as does EA's ill-fated Anthem. With adherence to consumer-friendly monetization policies, however, along with offering transparency to what the title will offer, it seems difficult for Outriders to go awry at this point in time.
Outriders will release on April 1 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.