Outriders Is Online Only, But Not a Service Game

Outriders requires a constant internet connection, but this does not mean that it is a service game akin to the likes of Destiny or The Division. Talking to IGN, Outriders’ creative director Bartosz Kmita confirmed that “It's online only. We have a lot of things in the backend so you have to be connected to the internet to be able to play.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/outriders-preview"] Outriders is a co-op shooter, but can be played solo, despite the requirement for an internet connection. The always online nature may have players questioning if Outriders is a service game, but Kmita emphasises that’s not the case. “We wanted to release the game as a complete product, so the story, the endgame, everything is in the box when you buy it,” he states. “We are not chopping the content we have created to release it month by month, we are giving all what we have created on day one. It’s all that we think is necessary to have a complete experience with Outriders.” That also means that the microtransactions that you’d associate with service games won’t be present in Outriders. “The bad things that are sometimes connected to games as a service, like loot boxes or any pay to win mechanics, we are against them,” says Kmita. “So we're not using them at all in our game.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-first-screenshots&captions=true"] But the ‘whole product’ approach doesn’t mean that developer People Can Fly will not be supporting Outriders after launch. “You can think of it as a more old school approach like the Diablo games, where you get the more or less finished product and then a big expansion from time to time that expands the whole game and whole universe,” explains Kmita. “Not that every week they add two additional items or small things, or they force you to do some activities to unlock some other things. It's not our approach.” For more on Outriders, check out our hands-on preview and a closer look at the RPG systems at play in the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.