People Can Fly’s mysterious Project Dagger has been cancelled

Project Dagger, the enigmatic title in the works at Bulletstorm and Outriders developer People Can Fly has been cancelled according to a recent report. The game, which has been in development for around four years, has been deemed “unsatisfactory” and thus the decision has been made to shelve the game for good.

This update comes as per a report from People Can Fly produced earlier this month. The report confirms that the studio has “decided to discontinue further work on Project Dagger“. The still-not-officially-titled project first came to light back in 2022 when Take-Two Interactive pulled out of a publishing agreement with People Can Fly. The publisher had the option to purchase the rights to the project at the time, but chose not to, leading to People Can Fly to self-publish the game. Unfortunately, the studio has now decided to discontinue work on the project, seemingly due to unclear game direction. This is suggested by a statement in the report confirming that the game’s direction had been through a “redefining” process, and still was found to be unsatisfactory.

Things have not gone super well for People Can Fly in recent years. The studio’s last major release, Outriders, reportedly wasn’t profitable, at least in the short run. More recently, the studio has laid off over 30 employees earlier this year, with a further 20 staff members reallocated from their next major game to other areas of the company. Despite the cancellation of Project Dagger, however, the studio is still working on a different game, codenamed “Project Gemini”. This upcoming title is being published by Square-Enix, which also published Outriders.

That said, things don’t seem all that rosy for this project either, as a report that the studio published in November 2023 advised that “the Management Board considers it highly probable that the development of Project Gemini will not be continued by the Group on the current commercial terms“. Although there is no confirmation as of yet that Project Gemini will go the way of Project Dagger, it is understandable that the Warsaw-based developer is not exactly optimistic considering the waves of layoffs which have roiled the game industry over the last two years. Hopefully the cancellation of Project Dagger doesn’t suggest that any of the studio’s other projects are in jeopardy, and more news about its next release will become available before long.