One of the biggest questions facing the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 this summer was the launch date for both consoles. The mystery was actually a major barrier for most games launching later this year that once the November release dates were provided, various games started to fall into place as well either as launch titles or games that were launching close by. While many of the big names like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla have confirmed launch dates, Outriders remains one of the last titles without a hard date. Thankfully, today’s announcement finally provided fans a bit of clarity.
Unfortunately, the news isn’t good for fans hoping to jump into the world of Enoch in 2020. As many have come to believe, Outriders has been delayed out of its Holiday 2020 window and is now arriving in 2021. However, the wait is going to be shorter than expected as the corresponding trailer reveals that the new launch date is February 2, 2021. The Stadia launch date has not been moved and is expected sometime later in 2021.
Toby Palm, the Outriders Community Manager, reveals a bit more on the decision to hold the game back, some of which was due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced studios to transition to remote. While the content is largely complete at this point, the main issue that the studio ran into was having enough time to properly test the game. As such, the decision was made to push the game back to give the studio more time to polish and fix outlying issues.
It’s not all bad news, however. Palm went on to reveal that Outriders is launching with full cross-play compatibility, letting fans play together with anyone regardless of platform from Stadia, to PC, to all the Sony and Microsoft consoles as well. In addition, players who pick up a copy of Outriders for the current generation systems will also be able to upgrade completely for free. Unfortunately, no additional details were provided on what kind of upgrades the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions would come with.
While the decision to delay a game due to the global pandemic is something that has been quite common for many studios in 2020, this may ultimately come to benefit Outriders in the long run. Alongside the launch of new consoles, November is already incredibly packed with new releases including a few loot-based titles as well. Outriders would have been facing direct competition with Godfall, free upgrades to existing games like Borderlands 3, as well as the brand new Beyond Light expansion for the already immensely popular looter shooter, Destiny 2. Spacing Outriders out from the competition could help the game to stand out, especially in a slower month like February.
Outriders launches on February 2, 2021 PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, with a Stadia version in development for 2021.
Source: Square Enix Blog
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