The launch of the newest PC loot shooter, Outriders, has had some problems. The game ran into load balancing issues in various regions as servers were overloaded with new players at launch. It would appear that some of those problems have been fixed. And though some balance and gameplay issues remain, things are looking good.
The developer has been on top of the bugs, and it appears to have worked out. Outriders has tripled Marvel’s Avengers peak player count on Steam. It looks like this new game has a lot of interest behind it thanks to the intriguing story and fast-paced gameplay.
Sure, Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have a very high player count, but it needs to be brought up. With a game marketed as heavily as Marvel’s Avengers there is a need to point this out. The general lesson here is that a better and more interesting game will do better.
As of this writing, just over 1,100 players are playing Marvel’s Avengers while almost 92,000 are playing Outriders. The peak at launch for the Marvel game was around 28,000 players at peak on Steam. This new game has a peak player count on Steam of around 110,000.
One of the biggest problems for the troubled superhero game was that it didn’t have enough content. Just days after launch, most players had completely stopped playing at all. The reasons for this are many, either often being based on too much RNG and grinding; although many players pointed out that the game needs more stuff to do. There has also been a push that the game will go free-to-play, but that may not save it. Marvel’s Avengers needs a lot more than new content to bounce back.
On the Outriders front, there’s a need to have more stable servers, as well as addressing balance issues. Players have been pretty happy with the opening of the game, but found a big of a drag in the middle.
