People Can Fly’s looter-shooter Outriders had been primed for a Holiday 2020 launch since it was pushed back from its original Summer 2020 window, but it seems the game has been delayed once again. Square Enix have confirmed with new release date announcement trailer that Outriders will be launching on February 2, 2021- just as a recent premature Steam listing had suggested.
In a blog update, Outriders community manager Toby Palm says that COVID-19 has, like many other studios and games, affected People Can Fly’s development pipeline as well. While the core of the content is “larely” complete, Palm says game testing was hit much harder due to the work-from-home requirements than other aspects of development.
“It had been our full intention to deliver Outriders to you within the Holiday 2020 season,” Palm wrote. “COVID-19 has certainly affected our operations over the past months, but the teams have all worked extremely hard to adapt to changing circumstances. While the core game is now in a largely complete state, our testing operations were unfortunately among the most affected by the work-process-restructuring caused by the novel coronavirus. To that end, we need a bit more time to get it right and ensure that the Outriders experience will be as smooth and issue-free as it possibly can be when we launch. It is our utmost priority to give you the best and most complete Outriders experience possible, at all costs.”
That said, some other notable new announcements have also been made. For starters, it’s been confirmed that Outriders will support full cross-platform multiplayer across every platform it’s releasing on (and it’s releasing on quite a few). Additional, free next-gen upgrades have also been confirmed for both Xbox and PlayStation.
When Outriders launches in February, it will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia.