It’s been known for roughly two years at this point that Outriders and Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly had signed into an agreement with Take-Two Interactive that would see the latter publishing a new action-adventure IP developed by the former’s New York studio. It seems, however, that there have been significant developments behind the scenes.
It’s been announced that Take-Two Interactive has terminated its publishing deal with People Can Fly. People Can Fly says that while terms for settlement of advanced payments and the like are yet to be agreed, Take-Two hasn’t exercised its option to retain ownership of the IP, which means the Polish developer retains full ownership of the project and remains completely in charge of its production.
The new IP, which has been in development for two years under the codename Project Dagger, will remain in development. People Can Fly confirms that the title is still in pre-production, with the current plan being to self-publish when it’s ready for launch.
“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,” says CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski. “We strongly believe in the Project Dagger’s potential and are now committed to continue 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 migrate from UE4 to UE5. I’m conscious that this decision will add investments on 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 is currently also working on an unannounced new game in collaboration with Square Enix, which was also the publisher for Outriders.