Take-Two terminates Project Dagger publishing agreement with People Can Fly

People Can Fly will be retaining the rights to the IP as Take-Two has not exercised its option to buy out the game as stipulated in the contract.

PCF intends to self-publish Project Dagger as a consequence of being dropped by Take-Two. The studio admits that this will incur additional investments. However, they have not ruled out the possibility of working with a new publisher for the action-adventure game.

Project Dagger devs are reportedly focusing on closing combat and game loops. PCF will also be migrating from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 for its new IP. The New York-based studio is handling development for the game and is being led by David Grijns, who was the executive producer for Just Cause 3.

Project Dagger was announced way back in 2020 with Roland Lesterlin as creative director. Lesterlin previously worked as game director for Just Cause 3. PCF describes Project Dagger as a "highly ambitious, groundbreaking action-adventure title."

Speaking of bad news for People Can Fly, it's believed that Outriders hasn't made the studio profit by the end of last year. According to reports, Square Enix did not pay PCF any royalties from the game as a result of insufficient sales. This means that the publisher did not recoup the expenses it incurred in developing and publishing Outriders. PCF remains hopeful that the game will finally make money before this year ends.

Despite the financial loss, People Can Fly will continue developing the DLC for Outriders as it is stipulated in the contract with Square Enix.

Project Dagger is only one of seven projects for PCF. There is one more game under Square Enix while the two others will be self-published. There are also two upcoming VR titles and one that is in its early concept stage.