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Outriders' People Can Fly Hasn't Received Royalties from Square Enix Due to Lack of Profits | MMORPG
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Outriders' People Can Fly Hasn't Received Royalties from Square Enix Due to Lack of Profits | MMORPG.com
The folks at People Can Fly, the developers behind Outriders, claimed through an investor note they haven't been paid royalties from publisher Square Enix, pointing to lack of profitability.
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I did not even know this game was released. I saw it being played during its limited beta and the overall consensus was the game was kind of not great. I was super excited for Anthem and then that was a complete let down. This game gave me, and I assume alot of others Anthem vibes. That combined with the general bad opinions about the game during its beta, I would not be surprised if the game was not being considered profitable currently.
Also they gave the game away free as an Nvidia promotion (buying gpu or pc with nvidia). That is how I obtained it.
Gamepass pays the developer for time played, downloads etc. What ever agreement they made with Xbox, they got payed. So Square E should pay up. EDIT: After reading the article. This is about millions of copies of an expansion. Gamepass does not cover playing expansions for the sub fee. Anyone playing the expansion on Gamepass, would have paid for it. Again SE needs to pay up if they did sell 2-3 million DLCs.
They do deserve to get paid though. Unless SE is just that bad at making deals on gamepass. A lot of devs choose to go that way for a reason. Many times the devs are even profitable out of the gate due to gamepass deals.
Guarantee that somewhere behind Square, that their is a tax agency that demands good record keeping to get their take for taxes. So they for sure have the records of all types of deals, sales or whatever.
Looks like the original dev's do not even know who to call at the publishers to get info. Something that sounds impossible to me.
More like a deal that they are now regretting, and looking to make a stink in public to get a mob interested and put pressure on the publishers.
Whatever the issue, I find it hard to believe that in these times that there are not many lawyers involved, and that the info presented is not really what is going on.
Can not be a game company or publishers that could produce anything that sells "millions" of anything and be that lacking in business competency.
"royalties" aren't guaranteed if the product bombs.
Damn shame because it was fun.
So what's keeping them from triggering it if they think they haven't been paid the full amount owed them?
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Yeah, it really sounds like it was a shitty contract. Sure, they got enough funding to stay in business to make it but if this is the type of deal they sign, then it's doubtful we'll see much more out of them. I figured they would have had solid amounts mentioned in the contracts and a clause giving them access to the overall sales details of the game.
My guess is that if PCF requests an audit, they've burned their bridges with Square. (not necessarily a bad thing but maybe not the first choice of action)
That is correct. They are not whining or signed a shitty contract. Journalists are asking them numbers and they are just being honest. They don't have the numbers yet. And this is Polish company, so they are just trying to be respectful - something they have been learning from the very first days on this planet. Yes, not all ppl are the same, but I actually met some of them and they indeed are good peapole. Just give them time, dont assume, dont speculate, dont blame anyone until you know the whole thruth.
Thank you.
It's just what people do when missing information, fill in the blanks with possible explanations until more is known.
More of a survival mechanism I think, learned from our earliest days.
Scene from 10K years ago.
"Yo Ugh, what you suppose that bright glow on horizon is?"
"Me not know Grog, maybe it's is big fire like last year?
"Naw, don't speculate Ugh, is probably just sun coming up early, wait till we know more."
Grog looks at Ugh and shakes head, "good luck with that" and quietly slips out for the next county later that evening while everyone else becomes a barbaque
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
and the obvious hint to the devs here: real betas, not payed early access bullshit (and yes, that includes stress tests, durr). then you might be able to actually release a game in a playable state some day
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
"I am standing now next to the meteoroid impact which fell today and killed a Neanderthal community. I have no one to speak to, no documentation and virtually nothing standing to comment on. But I will now launch into an analysis of how the community leaders got it wrong and who was to blame."
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I worked at a place for a few years where the upper management saw virtually all information as something that the regular workers just didn't need to know. Then management would get pissed off when people would make inaccurate assumptions about what was going on. I use to tell my bosses a similar version of what you said. "In the absence of information, people will make sh*t up."