Outriders Developers React to Positive Demo Reception

Developer People Can Fly has been largely responsive to fan feedback concerning the company's recently released demo for Outriders. The Outriders demo released for multiple platforms on February 25, and despite some connectivity issues and lower cutscene frame rates, gamers have had a lot of positive things to say about the game. People Can Fly recently shared a developer update detailing changes from the Outriders demo to full launch while also fixing some demo issues. Now, People Can Fly is talking about how the team has responded to the demo's positive reception.

The Outriders demo hit a massive milestone in its first week, as over 2 million players downloaded the game. Players are enjoying experimenting with the four different playable classes in the game to see how different builds affect different runs through the story. The Outriders demo contains the entire first chapter of the game with all the side quests and the first boss, which is plenty of content on its own. But players are also replaying parts of the demo over and over to try and get some of the best Legendary loot drops in the game.

In an interview with PlayStation Blog, People Can Fly's Creative Director, Bartek Kmita, talks about how incredible it has been for the team to see such a positive reaction to the Outriders demo.

"It was a real rollercoaster of emotions to be honest. At first, I was excited that so many people wanted to play as soon as the demo was live, but this was followed by a brief panic-moment when servers were not scaling fast enough. When the server situation was resolved we started to see first impressions of the game itself, and the whole team has been watching as many streams, Let’s Plays and think-pieces as we can – it’s been amazing to see what everybody thinks so far. In the end, I’m extremely happy that so many people played the demo and that they are enjoying it."

Kmita also responds to the news that some players have put 100+hours into the Outriders demo, saying that the design of Outriders has always been geared toward a "huge, sprawling RPG journey." The loot system in Outriders encourages players to experiment with different builds and is created with the intent to make character creation a more satisfying experience.

However, loot farming in the Outriders demo has gone through some changes, and People Can Fly will continue to tweak it with the release of the full game. Many demo players found ways to farm chests in the game for Legendary loot, and these strategies fall outside the realm of People Can Fly's intentions for the game. The developer stated in the last Outriders demo update that it would not be preventing farming efforts but "redirecting" them, so players can still grind for good gear primarily through side quests rather than chest exploitation.

A new trailer for Outriders also released today that tells the story of humanity's failed colonization attempt on Enoch. Apparently, the chosen heroes to save Earth from destruction all died in a fiery explosion, and now the survival of the human race depends on the few who have been turned into augmented weapons on Enoch. These warriors are the protagonists of Outriders, and players will take control of them and battle against the all the threats Enoch can muster.