People Can Fly, the studio behind Painkiller and Bulletstorm, is having a modern resurgence. After years of remastering and porting Bulletstorm, as well as helping Epic Games with Fortnite: Save the World, People Can Fly's prepared to put out its original game Outriders. It seems that People Can Fly's partnership with Square Enix to create Outriders is now leading to bigger and better things. The studio recently confirmed that it's working on not one, but two additional AAA games on top of Outriders.
People Can Fly CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski reportedly confirmed the news just recently, saying that the studio is "currently working on two new AAA games." He also confirms that both games are being made in cooperation with major publishers, though not the same one for both games. Like Outriders, one of the games will be made with Square Enix. The other, says Wojciechowski, is being made in partnership with Take-Two Interactive. It's unclear if this is Take-Two itself or its Private Division indie subsidiary.
Wojciechowski goes on to provide a handful of other details about the two in-development projects. First, he provides the code names for the in-development projects. He names them Gemini and Dagger, which may or may not provide any insight into their nature. Finally, he mentions a tentative release window for both projects. Both the new Square Enix game and the new Take-Two game will be released by the end of 2024.
While Wojciechowski doesn't provide any official details regarding what either game is, there are probably some things that can be assumed. People Can Fly develops shooters, so it's safe to say that Gemini and Dagger are shooters of some kind. First-person or third-person shooters are possibilities, with third-person more likely. Of course, it's always possible that People Can Fly is experimenting with other genres, too.
One thing to also consider is that People Can Fly's already partnered with Square Enix for the release of Outriders in 2021. That a second game with Square Enix is already confirmed perhaps implies that the publisher is very happy with Outriders. As such, it makes sense that Square Enix might have already approved a sequel. The 2024 launch window aligns with that, too.
As noted, it feels a lot like a resurgence for People Can Fly as a studio. After the success of Painkiller in 2004, followed by People Can Fly's partnership with Epic Games to work on the Gears of War franchise, the studio has seemed to be searching for a new opportunity. And Outriders appears to have been that game. It's exciting to consider what the studio has planned for the future.
Outriders releases February 2, 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S with Stadia to follow.
Source: Gamekyo, People Can Fly