Outriders developer, People Can Fly has revealed in a statement that its publishing deal with Take-Two Interactive has been terminated “by means of mutual understanding between the parties.” Under Take-Two’s deal, People Can Fly was developing its upcoming action-adventure game, codename Project Dagger which has been in the works for more than two years at the developer’s New York studio.
The split between the two parties will thankfully see People Can Fly retaining the rights of the IP and is free to find another publisher to help release the title or for the developer to self-publish the game. On the less positive side, as part of the termination, Take-Two is seeking People Can Fly to pay back the funds it provided during Project Dagger’s development which details haven’t been revealed and will be arranged later depending on the game’s future publishing status.
“I assume we will part on good terms, and I don’t see reasons why we couldn’t work with Take-Two on some other project in the future. We strongly believe in Project Dagger’s potential and are now committed to continuing its development within our self-publishing pipeline. The game is still in pre-production – our team is now focusing on closing combat and game loops and migrating from UE4 to UE5. I’m conscious that this decision will add investments to us, but self-publishing is part of our strategy. Of course, we are not ruling out working with a new publisher if this creates a compelling business opportunity,” People Can Fly CEO, Sebastian Wojciechowski said in a statement on People Can Fly’s website.
It’s more likely that People Can Fly’s name came on people’s radar last year with the Xbox Game Pass day-and-date release of Outriders which also launched its expansion, Worldslayer a couple of months back. Project Dagger isn’t the only game as the developer is working on multiple projects including “Gemini” for Square Enix, self-publishing Projects Bifrost and Victoria, Project Red, and Green Hell VR. People Can Fly says it’s planning to release “one game each year developed by the Group either in cooperation with a publisher or in the self-publishing model starting from 2024.”
