Earlier this summer, developer People Can Fly was hit by layoffs and the cancelation of two unannounced projects. Now, two reports have indicated that one of the canceled games was Outriders 2, the sequel to the 2021 action-shooter that People Can Fly developed for publisher Square Enix.
The Thumb Wars was the first outlet to report the story, which was subsequently corroborated by Insider Gaming. In June, People Can Fly explained that one of the canceled games–under the name Project Gemini–was suspended over issues with the game’s publishers regarding its failure to give the developer assets it needed to continue. It also noted that the publisher failed to maintain a dialogue with People Can Fly that would allow the two sides to finish the project.
Insider Gaming identifies Project Gemini as Outriders 2, and Square Enix as the publisher in question. The outlet reports that Outriders 2 wasn’t nearly as close to completion as The Thumb Wars’ report suggested, but there were no firm answers about what went wrong between People Can Fly and Square Enix.
People Can Fly had already laid off developers of a separate game known as Project Bifrost last December, but development continued with a smaller team until last month’s layoffs. Regardless of the latest staff reductions, People Can Fly is still working on a number of other titles including Gears of War: E-Day for Microsoft, Project Delta for Sony, and Project Echo for Krafton.
