Outriders developer People Can Fly has revealed the team hasn’t received any royalties since its gory looter shooter launched last year. And the game hasn’t earned publisher Square Enix a profit either.
In its most recent financial report , People Can Fly explains it’s “entitled to royalties” if Square Enix recovers enough of its costs. , But as of December 31, it has received no royalties for Outriders . This means “net proceeds from the sale of Outriders were insufficient to recover the costs and expenses incurred by the publisher to develop, distribute and promote the title.”
It’s a genuine shame to hear Outriders hasn’t been more of a success for People Can Fly. On the surface, the game appears to be a drab co-op shooter set in a generic sci-fi world. But the team has made a punchy co-op shooter full of silly fun. Its classes have a suite of ridiculously powerful abilities that can turn your enemies into bloody mulch. A favorite of mine is the Devastator because they can turn themselves into a meteorite and plummet down onto an enemy bursting them into a heavy mist of gizzards.
Outriders looked like it may have become a sleeper hit after it launched on Xbox Game Pass and picked up a sizeable initial audience. Especially as – according to Steam Charts – more than 100,000 people were playing at once on the platform. Clearly, that popularity didn’t convert into profits.
String of misses
Square Enix has had a string of high-profile misses in recent years – most notably Marvel's Avengers , its huge service game developed by Crystal Dynamics. After years of development, the Avengers looked like it could be as successful as Sony’s Spider-Man games. But it launched to middling reviews and low player numbers. In its 2021 financial report , Square Enix admitted it had “not proven as successful” as it would have liked.
The publisher didn’t have much luck with its Guardians of the Galaxy game either. In a financial report , Square Enix said that “Despite strong reviews, the game’s sales on launch undershot our initial expectations.” Though, it goes on to add that sales continue to grow.
While it wasn’t Square Enix’s biggest title, Babylon’s Fall is perhaps its most galling failure. Earlier this year, the co-op RPG practically emptied of players a month after launch, seeing its numbers on Steam drop to just eight people.
Perhaps off the back of all this, it’s easier to understand why Square Enix began this week by announcing it intends to sell a significant number of its studios and back catalog to an investment group. Not only will the sale include Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Monreal, and Square Enix Montreal – the teams behind the Tomb Raider reboot, the Deus Ex Reboot, and the publisher’s Marvel games – but also the rights to the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain games.
The sale is still in progress, but the silver lining is that we may see new life for some of those well-loved series from the teams that created them, rather than being passed off to new studios with no connection to the properties.
Not the end of Outriders
There is also good news for Outriders fans. Even if the game hasn’t seen a profit, People Can Fly is still developing new content for Outriders with the Worldslayer expansion.
Set on the same strange alien world of Enoch, Worldslayer adds a new campaign for high-level players, a separate class tree (with more hyper-violent abilities hopefully!), and lots of new loot.
To me, strangely, what stands out the most is the new Apocalypse tiers; a system that lets you significantly increase the difficulty for you and your friends. I usually don’t like my games too tricky, but if I can share the challenge, it makes for a much more enjoyable experience when it comes to a co-op shooter.
Games like GTA to play while waiting for GTA 6
Looking for games like GTA to play while you wait for GTA 6? Join the club. While Rockstar Games has finally announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 is indeed in development, it’s likely going to be years before it’s released.
Sure, we still have GTA 5 and GTA Online to tide us over in the meantime, which have been given a refresh for PS5 and Xbox Series X , but if you’re finding they’re becoming a bit stale then you may want to branch out – and that’s where we come in.
There’s no game that does what GTA does as well as GTA does it, if there were we wouldn’t be waiting so impatiently for a sequel. So what we’ve done instead is round up our picks of games that capture a part of what makes the GTA series so good, while offering something a bit different. So whether you love causing adrenaline-fueled chaos, planning an elaborate heist, or exploring a richly detailed world, there will be a game in our roundup for you.
Ready to leave Los Santos behind? Here are six games like GTA to play while waiting for GTA 6 .
Games like GTA
Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way first. Both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Saints Row tend to come up when talking about GTA alternatives but, given the Saints Row reboot is releasing later this year, it’s worth revisiting.
The first Saint’s Row was too similar to Grand Theft Auto, putting players in the shoes of a gang member embroiled in criminal activity who could freely roam the open world of Stilwater causing chaos at their leisure. The city wasn’t as well-drawn as GTA’s, the characters weren’t as colorful, the action wasn’t as fun, it was a poor imposter. We didn’t expect much from its sequel, but Volition tapped into something no one expected Saints Row 2: absurd humor.
Want to beat someone up with a blowup doll? No problem. How about shooting someone with a pimp cane shotgun? Go right ahead. There’s even a mission where you drive around a neighborhood spraying raw sewage over properties to lower their value. Realism went out the window with Saints Row 2 and that makes it perfect for chaotic GTA fans. Plus, if you like this one, there’s a whole series to work through.
Ok, this one is slightly left field, but bear with us. Something Rockstar does better than any other open-world game developer is detail. As you drive through Los Santos and Liberty City, or ride a horse through the streets of Red Dead Redemption 2’s Saint Denis, you see stories playing out before you. NPCs chatting, fighting, going about their day. It feels like you’re a visitor in a living virtual world.
Hitman isn’t an open-world game like GTA or Red Dead, instead, it’s a string of levels, each of them an open sandbox for you to explore. But, because developer IO Interactive hasn’t had to build a sweeping open world, each of those sandboxes is stuffed with detailed interactions between characters. These levels can be explored for hours, with secrets to uncover in every corner. Like GTA and Red Dead, they feel like lived in and living places.
Also like GTA, there’s nothing quite like bringing chaos to a living virtual world.
If you spend afternoons in GTA just blowing things up to see how the world reacts and escalates, there is a lot of fun to be had in Hitman. Load up with throwing knives, assault rifles, maybe an explosive rubber duck or two, and you can turn a quiet Italian plaza into a warzone
While Hitman 3 is easily the best entry in the rebooted series, you’ll probably be a bit confused if you started there so we advise playing through the entire trilogy in order, starting with this one.
Jumping into the Yakuza series can initially feel a bit daunting, considering how many entries there are, but if you want to play the games in order then we suggest starting with Yakuza 0.
The prequel to the original game, Yakuza 0 is perfect for those who enjoy GTA’s gripping missions and its rich, open world. And, like GTA, Yakuza 0 offers a variety of side quests and activities to partake in outside of the main story, including karaoke and gambling. You can spend hours exploring its world and getting up to mischief without having to progress the main narrative at all. There’s plenty to get up to in Yakuza 0 and you’ll easily find yourself pouring hours into it.
If you’re looking for a mid-point between the havoc of Saints Row 2 and the often serious nature of GTA, then you can’t go wrong with the quirky Yakuza 0. Make sure to check out our guide on how to play the Yakuza games in order too because we’re sure that once you’ve played one you’ll want to jump into the rest, plus pretty much all of them are games like GTA.
Are you the type of GTA fan who simply wants to double down on mindless destruction with little care for any sort of narrative? Then Just Cause 3 is definitely for you. It may not be the most recent Just Cause game (that’s Just Cause 4 ), but Just Cause 3 is our favorite in the series.
Just Cause 3 sees you playing as Rico Rodriguez, who’s on a mission to bring down a dictator controlling a stunning island paradise. Quite frankly, Just Cause 3’s story pretty much falls to the wayside, with the main pull here being sheer creative and explosive chaos.
As Rico, you can grapple, parachute and wingsuit your way across the vast island blowing things up thanks to the explosive weapons and vehicles at your disposal. What’s more, you can even experiment with your mayhem. There’s simply nothing better than grappling two enemies together and then retracting the grapple so they bang heads – it’s like an action-comedy movie of your own making. Just Cause 3 absolutely deserves it's place on this list of games like GTA.
What would GTA be like if it was set in the 1930s? Well, ponder no more, because Mafia Definitive Edition pretty much answers that: damn good.
An expanded remake of 2002’s Mafia, Mafia Definitive Edition follows gangster Tommy Angelo as he climbs the ranks of the Salieri crime family. While we’ve seen the rags-to-riches gangster story time and time again in GTA, the writing in Mafia is exceptionally good and, over a campaign that spans decades, you get to know all the members of the family and see how their criminal life impacts them. Also, it’s magical to watch the city of Lost Heaven grow and change through the years.
Mafia Definitive Edition is bursting with character and offers the rich open-world and gripping missions of GTA, against an unforgettable backdrop. This is definitely one of the best games like GTA.
Right, this one is actually quite left field but give us a chance to explain. Some of the best missions in GTA history are its heist levels. Nothing makes us feel more like a smooth criminal like GTA 4’s Three Leaf Clover mission, where you suit up and break into the Bank of Liberty, making off with $1m. Rockstar leaned into them in GTA 5, providing multiple heists, with the added spin of hopping between the different protagonists. And the developer developed this even further in GTA Online by making those robberies cooperative with other players. Turns out crime is more fun with friends.
That’s why we’d recommend Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine. This top-down co-op heist game challenges you and your friends to break into the bank vaults of increasingly well-defended casinos. Each robber has a special ability, such as The Mole who can dig through almost any wall in the game, or The Pickpocket whose pet monkey will steal cash for you.
If crime is your thing, there are fewer better ways to spend an evening with friends. And make the wait for GTA 6 all the shorter.
Xiaomi 12 launch: 4 things we expect and 3 things we don’t
The Xiaomi 12 is about to go global, with a global launch planned for March 15, and it won’t just be the Xiaomi 12 itself that we see on that date.
A teaser for the event mentions the Xiaomi 12 ‘series’, so more than one phone will be getting a global launch, and given that several members of the Xiaomi 12 family have already landed in China, we have a good idea of what.
But Xiaomi might not stop with just the phones it’s launched in China, as there are whispers of other members of the Xiaomi 12 family too.
Below then, we’ve listed every known or rumored Xiaomi 12 model – starting with the ones that we expect to see on March 15 and followed by those that we don’t.
Four things we expect to see
The following four things all have a good shot of being shown at the Xiaomi 12 launch. In fact some of them will certainly be seen.
Xiaomi 12
It wouldn’t be the Xiaomi 12 launch without the Xiaomi 12, so of course that will make an appearance, and as it’s already been unveiled in China we know exactly what to expect from it – other than price and availability details.
The Xiaomi 12 has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, up to 12GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a triple-lens camera led by a 50MP sensor, a 4,500mAh battery with 67W charging, and a 6.28-inch 1080 x 2400 OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate.
Xiaomi 12 Pro
The Xiaomi 12 Pro was unveiled alongside the Xiaomi 12 in China so we’re fully expecting to see it get a global launch alongside its sibling too, though there’s an outside chance that it might not, depending on the company's international strategy.
The Xiaomi 12 Pro has a 6.73-inch 1440 x 3200 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, up to 12GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a 4,600mAh battery with remarkably speedy 120W charging, and a triple-lens camera, with 50MP sensors for main, ultra-wide and telephoto lenses.
Xiaomi 12X
The Xiaomi 12X was the third and final model in the range unveiled in China, and we’re a lot less sure that this one will get a global launch.
But we’re including it in this section because MySmartPrice claims to have learned European pricing for the phone from “industry sources.” Of course, there wouldn’t be European pricing for it if it wasn’t getting a wider launch – though this is just a leak for now, so we’d take it with a pinch of salt.
In any case, the Xiaomi 12X is an almost identical phone to the standard Xiaomi 12, just with a slightly less powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset, and therefore also a lower price.
Given how similar this device is it seems a bit niche, which is why we remain slightly skeptical that it will get a global launch, but leaks do suggest it might.
Xiaomi 12 Lite
The Xiaomi 12 Lite hasn’t been unveiled anywhere yet, so we’re less sure that we’ll see this than any of the phones above, but it’s rumored to exist, and appears to have been certified by the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), which is something that would typically happen shortly before a launch in Europe.
The Xiaomi 12 Lite is rumored to have a 6.55-inch 1080 x 2400 screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a triple-lens camera including a 64MP main sensor, and a mid-range Snapdragon 7-series chipset.
Three things we don’t expect to see
There are several other rumored members of the Xiaomi 12 range, but we’re not expecting to see them on March 15, as explained below.
Xiaomi 12 Ultra
There have been numerous rumors of a Xiaomi 12 Ultra , designed to sit above even the Xiaomi 12 Pro. The existence of this phone would make sense too, since there was a Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra .
But current leaks suggest it won’t land before July , and there’s some question over whether this phone even exists . So if it launches at all it probably won’t do for at least four months yet. The main upgrade with this phone could be the camera, with talk of up to seven lenses on the rear .
Xiaomi 12 Ultra Enhanced
Even the Xiaomi 12 Ultra might not be the top model in the Xiaomi 12 range, as there are also whispers of a Xiaomi 12 Ultra Enhanced .
We don’t know anything about this phone yet, so it’s not clear what ways it would be enhanced in, but since we doubt we’ll see the Xiaomi 12 Ultra on March 15, we’re even less convinced we’ll see the Xiaomi 12 Ultra Enhanced.
As there’s so little information on this phone it may well not exist anyway, and if it does it might not end up being widely available, as it sounds like it could be a niche – and expensive – device.
Xiaomi 12 Mini
There’s also talk of a Xiaomi 12 Mini, but with most of the leaks being conflicting or sketchy, we’re not at all convinced that this is a real device , especially as the Xiaomi 12 itself is already fairly compact.
We’d be surprised if this launches at all, and even more so if it lands at the upcoming event, as we haven’t heard any suggestions that it will arrive there.