In just under a week, the co-op shooter Outriders will celebrate its official release. Now the exact times are known when you can dive into the game on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
When is the Outriders release? Officially, Outriders starts on Thursday, April 1, 2021. A demo has been available for a while, which has received several updates. In the demo, you can extensively test Outriders.
This is how the release works: Square Enix announced the exact times via reddit when you can start the game.
- On Xbox, the game will be available from midnight on April 1 local time. So it starts at 00:00 on April 1, 2021.
- On PlayStation, the release is also at 00:00 local time.
- On PC, the game is set to start at 17:00 BST on April 1. This corresponds to 18:00 German time. So on PC & Stadia, players can only start in Outriders in the evening.
Preload for Outriders – The times and platforms
When does the preload start? There will be different options for preload on different platforms. The advantage of a preload is that you can download the game before the official launch and then start it at the release time. You can’t play before release, but at least you can save the download time when the game starts.
However, the preload times vary by platform and are not available everywhere.
- On Xbox, the preload should already be available from today.
- On PlayStation, the preload is scheduled to happen 48 hours before release. That would be March 30, starting at 00:00.
- On Steam, the developers are currently looking into how feasible a preload is. There should be further information in the coming week.
- There is expected to be no preload via the Epic Game Store.
What about a Day-1 patch?
This is what the developers say about patches: In the post, it is also explained that a Day-1 patch is planned, which should ideally be included in the preload. However, it may be possible that this does not work and the patch will need to be downloaded separately on April 1. The contents of the patch are:
- Bug fixes and improvements, especially in later game sections
- Performance improvements for issues identified in the demo
- An improved camera that shakes less during cutscenes and dialogues
- Frame rate improvements during cutscenes and dialogues:
- On PC, players should be able to choose between 30, 60, 90, and 120 FPS
- On Xbox Series X|S and PS5, 60 FPS should be available
- On Xbox One and PS4, 30 FPS
Apart from the Day 1 patch, another patch is expected to arrive a few weeks after launch. It should bring improvements to loading times, enhancements to co-op performance, and crossplay friend lists across all platforms. Should more urgent bugs arise beforehand, they are to be fixed with hotfixes.
Bugs that were discovered during the demo should hopefully be improved by the release – as well as balancing and crash issues. One difference from the demo will be that crossplay is active by default, but can be disabled.
Additionally, at release, the cover system will be improved, where there were still issues. Here, players can expect less trouble at release.
