>
GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive has pulled out of a publishing deal with People Can Fly, two years into the development of the studio’s next project.
Outriders developer announced the end of the partnership in a pronunciation (opens in new tab) that said the studio had received “a letter of intent from Take-Two Interactive to terminate the development and publishing agreement through mutual understanding.”
Take-Two was set to release an unannounced “action-adventure” game based on an original IP. The game, codenamed Project Dagger, is still in pre-production. People Can Fly says it will now focus on tightening up the combat and game loops and migrating from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
More live service laments?
The statement does not reveal why Take-Two withdrew from the publishing agreement, although it considers the decision to be on good terms. Sebastian Wojciechowski, CEO of People Can Fly, said he sees no reason why the studio will stop working with Take-Two in the future.
People Can Fly has retained the rights to the project and will continue development before the final release is self-published. According to the statement, Take-Two had the option to purchase the ownership rights, but decided not to. Wojciechowski sees the publisher’s strike as just a hitch on the road to full project completion.
Project Dagger is one of seven games currently in development at People Can Fly. The studio is also working on a game in partnership with Square Enix, two others that will be self-published, and a number of VR titles.
Most recently, it partnered with Square Enix to release the live service FPS Outriders in 2020. We thought it was a “weird game” with a cookie-cutter cover that makes a terrible first impression. But put in enough hours and you’ll find “an undeniable charm for Outriders’ take on the loot-shooting genre.”
While Outriders didn’t receive a great reception from critics, it didn’t do as badly as Square Enix’s latest foray into live service games, which turned out to be a disaster.