People Can Fly has put up a new job opening for their upcoming project with Xbox, Project Maverick.
People Can Fly themselves revealed that Microsoft tapped them to make Project Maverick, in a statement to Polish news media, all the way back in June of this year. The project apparently has a budget of $ 30 to 50 million, but as of this writing, Microsoft has yet to officially announce the project.
Now, Klobrille has pointed out that People Can Fly has 40 open positions for Project Maverick. Some of those job openings come with this description for the game:
“Project Maverick is a yet unannounced AAA game developed with Microsoft. The game development involves our European and North American teams.”
The job openings also look for workers who have experience with Unreal Engine, as well as RPGs.
So, these aren’t much details to go on, but we do see that People Can Fly has let some information out. People Can Fly’s specialty are with making shooters, the game described is an RPG, so it may be a Western style shooter RPG.
That narrows it down a bit, but there are many different kinds of games that fit that description, so we’re still not quite sure what this could be. These could range from the likes of Remnant 2, Borderlands 3, Mass Effect 3, Fallout 4, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
But let’s say that Microsoft is eyeing a People Can Fly game similar to their previous work. Outriders is actually a shooter RPG as well. This game boasts online co-op action, putting it under the same umbrella as Borderlands and Redfall.
Unfortunately, Outriders is also a famous recent flop. We had reported that the game did not make money in its first year. Last 2022, People Can Fly revealed in financial reports that publisher Square Enix did not pay them any royalties for the project.
While it seems that the studio should have been paid for what the game at least made at launch, this seems to be an indication that the game will never make a profit. It’s entirely possible that what money the game did make did not add up enough to pay for what must have been steep development costs.
Thankfully, People Can Fly later revealed a five project plan to investors. Interestingly enough, it’s possible that Project Maverick is not part of this plan, as it does not share any of the codenames that the company shared then.
While we don’t know what to expect, it’s good that this story of a failed release didn’t lead to studio closure or reports of fired workers. Hopefully People Can Fly really can bounce back with this and their other projects.
