Although Square Enix's potential Destiny killer Outriders is still a few weeks from release, fans are already questioning the game's future. Developer People Can Fly has a wealth of experience designing games, but there's always the concern over where a new IP can go.
Recently CBR had the opportunity to speak with Outriders' Creative Director Bartek Kmita and Lead Game Designer Piotr Nowakowski on the planned future for Outriders, but it seems all hands are focused only on getting the game polished and ready for release. However, that could easily change.
"Right now, it's up to the players." Creative Director Bartek Kmita told CBR when asked about potential DLC for the game. "If they want more, we are more than happy to create more content, more adventures, more stories, more classes, other things. Right now, we're not thinking about that. We want to ship the game, but then we'll see how people are reacting."
It's a refreshing change of pace for the industry. Today, most games live or die based on DLC that's planned or even announced even before release, and this mentality may be another example of People Can Fly distancing themselves from the idea that Outriders is a games-as-a-service title.
Outriders' two most frequent comparisons, Destiny 2 and The Division, both embraced games-as-a-service with waves of DLC trickled to players over the years. For The Division, that's meant story-driven DLC updates. Destiny 2 has taken a more aggressive approach, releasing expansions with massive story and gameplay changes annually since release; expansions that carry with them a nearly full retail cost each year. Other games in the genre have standardized practices like battle passes and purchasable items, be they permanent cosmetics or game boosting consumables, in order to pad the bottom line.
Outriders looks as if it will be a complete experience at launch, but the promise of DLC could make the game infinitely more replayable. The game's current build boasts four classes -- Devastator, Pyromancer, Trickster and Technomancer -- each with their own unique abilities and focuses. The game also includes enough save slots for up to six characters, meaning players have plenty of room to experiment with their preferred load-outs or just to have a variety of fire teams with friends.
However, new classes could quickly shake up how the game plays. Other massive games have done so for years; Destiny 2, for example, recently shook up its core gameplay by adding an entirely new subclass, Stasis, which plays radically different from anything else. It also used that subclass to build on the already expansive lore of the world. The potential to expand Outriders' story and world with new classes or abilities via future DLC, paid or otherwise, may be something that People Can Fly finds itself unable to resist down the road.
With the Outriders demo finally available and the game's launch imminent, player feedback is about to start pouring in. With a focus on shipping the game and crafting a unique experience for the players, Outriders already looks like it has the potential to be a massive hit in 2020, but only time will tell if that success means even more content down the road for fans.
Developed by People Can Fly and published by Square Enix, Outriders releases for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia, and PC April 1, 2021.