People Can Fly and Take-Two Part Ways on Publishing Deal

People Can Fly and Take-Two Interactive have mutually agreed to terminate their development and publishing contract for Project Dagger, an action-adventure IP that has been in the works for two years under the leadership of the studio's New York team. The studio retains full ownership of the intellectual property rights to Project Dagger, and Take-Two has not expressed any interest in acquiring these rights, allowing People Can Fly to proceed with the project's development as it sees fit. Any advances paid to the studio by Take-Two will be reimbursed based on the commercialization model chosen for the game, whether through self-publishing or a partnership with another third-party publisher. According to People Can Fly CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski, self-publishing is a key part of the studio's strategy, although the company is not ruling out the possibility of working with a new publisher in the future. Wojciechowski expressed his confidence in the potential of Project Dagger and the studio's commitment to continuing its development as a self-published title. People Can Fly is currently working on six other projects, including Gemini, which is being published by Square Enix, and Projects Bifrost and Victoria, which will be self-published. The studio also has two VR projects and another game in its conceptual phases. Following the release of Outriders in partnership with Square Enix last April, which struggled to achieve profitability in its first year, People Can Fly announced a restructuring plan in September that involves expanding into AA games with the goal of releasing at least one title per year starting from 2024.