Playing Outriders right now can be a struggle. Since its launch on April 1, Outriders has seen several serious server outages, players have experienced intermittent disconnects, and developer People Can Fly itself has taken down the servers manually. It's enough to make paying customers question exactly what's going on with the game. For the time being, People Can Fly doesn't have an exact answer to that question. However, if players can be patient, then a lengthier explanation for Outriders' ongoing issues will be provided.
In a message posted to the official Outriders Twitter account, a representative for the game responded to a question as to whether a "proper post mortem [sic]" will eventually be shared. The Twitter users asked to know what went wrong and whether players can expect People Can Fly and Square Enix to have learned from what's gone wrong. They express worry that it could happen again. The Outriders account says, "Absolutely," in response, before acknowledging the problem as it stands.
The Outriders account first addresses the fact that it's still "working through it all." The Outriders server problems are still occurring on Saturday, after all. But the team commits to sharing "specific details" about the issues Outriders is currently experiencing, as well as an account of how People Can Fly is working to address those problems.
No timeframe or further details are provided by the Outriders Twitter account, but it's easy to understand why. Outriders launched just two days ago and is experiencing extreme server stress, all while the team is likely trying to address other bugs and issues with the game as well. Everyone involved is likely working overtime to address any ongoing issues as fast as possible. People Can Fly is prioritizing doing the work before it can start discussing the work.
Despite server issues at launch, Outriders' player retention appears to be holding strong. Outriders reached over 110,000 concurrent users on Steam Saturday afternoon, with the peak player count having climbed since launch. There's no immediate evidence that the server issues are causing players to quit, though that may change if the issues persist.
The bigger issue with Outriders, as well as other such games that had challenging launches, is the requirement that all gameplay be online. Even though Outriders supports single-player action, it must be played online. Regardless of how People Can Fly goes on to explain why there were server issues and how it worked to fix them, it's unlikely to make players who feel like this entire situation could have been avoided feel better about that. That's part of the cost of playing live-service games these days, however.
Outriders is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.