Take-Two Interactive, publisher of GTA and Borderlands, has pulled out of a development and publishing agreement with People Can Fly, the company behind Outriders and Gears of War Judgment.
A financial update from People Can Fly states that Take-Two is ditching the project after two years of work – but that development will still continue.
Codenamed Project Dagger, the game is said to be a new action adventure IP, which People Can Fly now retains the rights to. It sounds like Take-Two had the option to purchase these rights – which it has not exercised.
“I assume we will part on good terms, and I don’t see reasons why we couldn’t work with Take-Two on some other project in the future,” People Can Fly boss Sebastian Wojciechowski said today.
“We strongly believe in the Project Dagger’s potential and are now committed to continue its development within our self-publishing pipeline. The game is still in pre-production – our team is now focusing on closing combat and game loops and migrate from UE4 to UE5.
“I’m conscious that this decision will add investments on us, but self-publishing is part of our strategy. Of course, we are not ruling out working with a new publisher if this creates a compelling business opportunity.”
Project Dagger is being developed by People Can Fly’s New York office. The company employs more than 550 people based in Warsaw, Rzeszow, Lodz, Krakow, Newcastle, New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto.
People Can Fly currently has six other games in the works, including one to be published by Square Enix and two VR games.
Its most recent release, Outriders, launched to mixed reviews in 2021 but enjoyed a period of popularity on Xbox Game Pass.
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