Square Enix announced today that the launch of Outriders is now delayed due to COVID-19. The game will now be launching on February 02, 2021 ” as a complete package on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC (Steam & Epic).
Square Enix’s Community Manager, Toby Palm, explains that the company intended to deliver Outriders within the Holiday season, however, COVID-19 has “certainly affected” the operations of the developer over the past months.
Palm affirms that the development team has 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.
Palm also confirms that even if Outriders is now delayed due to COVID-19, the game will launch featuring a “complete cross-play experience”, this will allow players to play the full game with friends across platforms. It was also confirmed a free upgrade from current-gen to next-gen consoles.
This means that you can buy and play Outriders on your current platform with the confidence that it will be there for you when you decide to make the jump to the next generation of your respective console.
COVID-19 has caused several delays in the industry, 343 Industries with the release of Halo Infinite, Bungie’s Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Bandai Namco’s Tales of Arise are recent examples of the challenges of switching to a work from home policy in some companies.
Xbox’s boss, Phil Spencer explained that one of the worst limitations of working from home is MOCAP. “Mocap is just something that’s basically stopped. We’re not going into mocap studios”
Nintendo has warned its investors that COVID-19 will have a severe impact that will be reflected on their March 31, 2021, report. The company forecast a 9.6 percent drop in Switch and Switch Lite sales, and 17 percent in software sales. Sony’s also reported a decline in sales of 333.3 billion yen (14%) year-on-year to 1 trillion 977.6 billion yen (a 12% decrease on a constant currency basis).
Source: Square Enix
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