Outriders is now live; and it’s ready to play for those of you that preloaded your games this week!
Square Enix released the game across different platforms at different times today, so depending on your platform of choice, you may already be set to dive in! Xbox players could preload the game yesterday whereas PlayStation players had access 48 hours ago. PC and Stadia players have had it a little rougher as there are no preload options.
Now that everyone is set up to download, when will you actually be able to play in your region?
Xbox and PlayStation:
Players will have access to the game at 12am on April 1st. Regardless of region.
US releases are based on EST time, so they had access to the game as of 12am EST on April 1st or 9pm PST, 1 pm CST, and 10 pm MDT on March 31st.
PC and Stadia:
These players will be waiting until 9am PST on April 1st.
So why all the different release times? A message from the Outriders team noted that the odd release dates and times are ”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.”
Though the wait times aren’t drastically different between the different time zones, players everywhere are looking for ways to get hold of the full game early. Reddits are popping up with titles like “Is changing your country to New Zealand on Xbox to play early considered cheating? Do we have an official statement on this?” Whether this truly works is unknown to me, but can it get you banned? Definitely.
Wherever you are in the world, you should be just about ready to dive into Outriders, and if you’re not, wait it out. Don’t risk the possible matchmaking ban just to get in on the action. The game will still be there when it’s time, this isn’t WOW, no one needs “World’s First”.
