According to Square Enix, the decision to launch Outriders with day-one availability on Xbox Game Pass has paid off by creating a larger established player base.
- READ MORE: Laugh all you want, but ‘Stranger Of Paradise – Final Fantasy Origin’ is actually pretty good
Speaking during the company’s full year financial results briefing, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda believes making Outriders available from day one on the Xbox service Game Pass was the right choice to make.
When asked about the response to Outriders, Matsuda states that Square Enix has been “pleasantly surprised” by the digital sales ratio for the title, noting that the “the number of active users has also beaten our expectations”.
“We believe that our decision to make “Outriders” available with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass as soon as the title launched also worked in our favor. (to build an install base for the game)”.
He does note that “there were slight issues with bugs and the like” on launch, but asserts that the game, made by People Can Fly, “has gotten off to a good start as a new IP”.
Player statistics from May suggest that this is indeed the case, as Outriders has already been played by more than 3.5million people.
When it launched on April 1, Outriders was one of the first AAA third-party titles to be immediately available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
Though Square Enix are counting Outriders as a success, Matsuda notes that “it does not mean that we will necessarily be releasing more titles in the looter shooter genre like Outriders”.
In other news, last Sunday (June 13) Square Enix announced Stranger of Paradise – Final Fantasy Origin. The game is a mash-up of multiple action genres and the demo is currently available for players to try now – here’s what our own writer thought of the gameplay.
The post Square Enix says ‘Outriders’ launch on Xbox Game Pass was a success appeared first on NME.
