Bulletstorm and Outriders studio People Can Fly has brought development of its struggling Project Dagger to a close after concluding its commercial potential was “unsatisfactory”.
Project Dagger, which People Can Fly previously described as a new action-adventure IP, had been in development for around three and a half years, and was initially set to be released by GTA and Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive.
In September 2022, however, it was announced Take-Two had pulled out of the deal, and that People Can Fly would retain the rights and continue development of the game for self-publishing. “We strongly believe in Project Dagger’s potential,” People Can Fly boss Sebastian Wojciechowski said at the time.
Despite that initial confidence, last November brought the news People Can Fly had halted development on Project Dagger following an external evaluation of its progress, and had tasked “an experienced team of approximately 10 people with… redefining the direction of the game’s development”.
Six months later, Project Dagger is officially dead. In a newly surfaced report announcing its cancellation earlier this month, People Can Fly explained, “The discontinuation of work… [is] in connection with the unsatisfactory results of the evaluation of the scope and commercial potential of the Project after redefining the direction of the game’s development.”
Project Dagger’s cancellation follows the troubled development of Project Gemini, a collaboration between People Can Fly and Square Enix. Last year brought the news both parties had entered into “strategic discussions” regarding Project Gemini’s future, and a report this January claimed over 30 people working on the project had been laid off due to budget limitations and its shrinking scope.
Alongside Project Gemini, People Can Fly is also known to be working on two self-published titles – codenamed Project Bifrost and Project Victoria – and the Microsoft-funded Project Maverick, based on one of Microsoft’s IP. Little is known about the title beyond its $30m-50m budget, but rumours persist Microsoft is readying for a major Gears of War revival.