November is shaping up to be an absolutely huge month for fans of video games. Arguably, the biggest piece to the month is the anticipated launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. Both Sony and Microsoft are pushing hard to attract gamers to their side, even with chaotic pre-orders taking the large majority of headlines recently. Regardless, both systems are offering a lot of new technology to console fans and games to round out the experience.
In addition to new consoles, November's game release schedule is fairly packed as well with huge names like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and Cyberpunk 2077 to name a few. Each week in November seems to bring a new experience to dig into, regardless if players are on next generation consoles or still happy with the PS4 and Xbox One versions.
For all the excitement of November, there are still a few mysteries that have yet to be resolved. One such question mark surrounds Outriders, the upcoming action RPG game from Square Enix and People Can Fly. While fans received a steady stream of news over the summer months, surprisingly, the game has gone quiet since leading many to assume Outriders would not be making its 2020 release.
For many fans, everything People Can Fly has shown off so far seems to be highly polished and well made. From an outside perspective, if the game were to launch this year, it would likely be able to compete with the other games in its class. Even still, People Can Fly has yet to confirm a solid launch date, indicating the game could slip into 2021. If that were to happen, a delay wouldn't be such a bad decision after all.
The most obvious reason to push the game out of its launch window is simply the amount of new content that will be vying for player's attention. As a new IP, Outriders is going to be facing an uphill battle attempting to take on heavy hitters like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty, even if they're all different types of games. Long running franchises are a known quantity, while there's a bit more risk with an unproven IP like Outriders. Not only that, people have limited time and limited money, so its easier to justify picking up a long running and popular franchise.
In addition to attempting to vie for player attention with big AAA games, Outriders also faces some stiff competition from similar style loot focused titles. Counterplay Games is launching the PS5 and PC exclusive title Godfall in November and while the game has had a questionable marketing strategy, it has high production values and attempts to differentiate itself by focusing on melee combat instead of guns like most looter shooter games.
Borderlands 3, another Gearbox Software game, is getting a next-generation version as well as Crystal Dynamics own Marvel's Avengers. While both games have their issues on current generation systems, many are hoping that many of those technical issues will be improved with the technology of the newer systems. Marvel's Avengers also has a whole roadmap of DLC that could time at least one or two releases by the time the next generation versions arrive to entice players back to the game.
Finally, the biggest hurdle to overcome may be Destiny 2. Having released three years ago, Bungie's incredibly popular looter shooter has a very passionate fanbase that is firmly embedded. What makes November so interesting for Destiny 2 is that its latest expansion, Beyond Light, is launching and promises to be the beginning of a new era for the franchise. With a new story to experience, new loot to chase, and a ton of franchise altering changes set to arrive like the Content Vault, Destiny 2 is shaping up to be a major hurdle for other looters to overcome next month. In addition to the base game being free to download anyway, Xbox players can also get their hands on the various expansions for free via Game Pass, meaning even more players can easily dive right into the experience without having to purchase anything extra.
Besides the overly crowded month of November, the extra development time could serve another beneficial purpose. With the launch pushed back, the studio gains extra time to continue working on the title, polishing the experience and fixing issues that may have crept in on day one. With the industry being extra sensitive to the aspect on crunch, especially due to the recent CD Projekt RED announcement over mandatory overtime to get Cyberpunk 2077 across the release finish line. While the extra time provided by a delay would certainly help, naturally, it doesn't always mean that development crunch can be completely avoided.
Overall, there's still a lot that fans don't know about Outriders as both Square Enix and People Can Fly continue to be overly quiet regarding the game. The delay whispers continue to grow, especially considering that the game has yet to receive an actual launch date with less than three months left in the year. While delays may disappoint most fans, perhaps in this case, moving away from the fierce competition that will likely rage in November may ultimately benefit the game in the long run.
Outriders releases holiday 2020 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, with a Stadia version in development for 2021.