Outriders was released April 1, 2021, and has had a launch weekend filled with nothing but problems.
Log in issues, internet connection issues and servers being taken down for maintenance are only a few of the problems fans are facing while they try to dive into launch weekend. More than once, the issues were posted as “resolved”, but fans in comment sections beg to differ.
The highly anticipated game had more than two million people download the demo and jump in as soon as they were able. Outriders was expected to be huge, especially with its day one Xbox Game Pass launch. With rolling launch times, Square Enix believed that would be the best way to tackle possible server issues and any other surprises that might come up, ”to ensure that we have the maximum amount of staff support on hand and working…5pm GMT/10am PST is also when Valve staff come online should we need their assistance. 5pm GMT for Steam release is the Square Enix tried and tested ideal time for launching.” I don’t think it quite worked out as planned.
This morning Xbox Support announced on Twitter that the game should be up and running again, but it was only met with negative comments, some even threatening returns of the game. Unfortunately, the issues are unlikely to be caused by the platform of choice. More than anything, the games servers are to blame, and since you can’t play Outriders offline, without logging in, it may be awhile before the problems are sorted out over every platform. Some players even boasted that they uninstalled the game after 30 minutes and headed over to buy Horizon Zero Dawn, since you can’t get kicked off a “real single player game”.
One of the big draws for Outriders was going to be its multiplayer cross platform matchmaking. Again, that has been less than functional. As recently as 11am EST, players were on Twitter mentioning that multiplayer and matchmaking were not functional for Xbox game owners. As of noon today, Outriders took to their own Twitter stating “We’re aware of current server instability and are looking into it. We will provide an update here as soon as we can.” The comment section, again, is not pretty, “worst game launch in the history of games”, “BUT for the love of god could you give us an offline mode? I keep getting disconnected and it sucks”.
Hopefully the game’s issues will be sorted out soon, as many fans looked forward to its long weekend launch. I have a feeling that there will be more angry players before a solution is found though. Maybe stick to Outriders on Xbox Game Pass if you’re thinking of buying the game, at least until servers are back up permanently!