Frontier's The Outsider sheds staff

By Fred Dutton Published 20 January, 2011

Oft-delayed title "not canceled" though.

A number of staff working on The Outsider, the oft-delayed action title from Kinectimals creator Frontier Developments, have been made redundant and the title's priority reduced, studio boss David Braben has announced.

According to Rock Paper Shotgun, 17 people have lost their jobs at the studio. However, Braben insists that the game, which was first announced back in 2005, has not been canceled.

"We have had to change priorities because of requirements on other unannounced projects," he explained. "Some people have been moved, and we are very sad to have made some people redundant."

He later clarified the situation to Develop, claiming, "There is still publisher interest in the project, and we haven't canceled it. The priority has been reduced, but we're still working on it."

Braben conceded that making redundancies was "a hateful thing to do" adding, "It's gutting, but one of those things you are forced to do sometimes."

When it was first announced, Frontier promised the finished game would offer "genuine freedom" inside a "gripping, high-tech thriller". The game's story saw you play as a fugitive CIA operative attempting to clear his name of a crime he didn't commit. Take a look at the trailer below for a better idea of what the studio was shooting for.

Although initially self-funded by the developer, it was reportedly later picked up by Codemasters. Rock Paper Shotgun claim that the deal fell through, as did a subsequent planned collaboration with EA.

In November, Braben told Eurogamer that the title was "still in full production".

Since the title was first unveiled, Frontier has released the two excellent LostWinds platformers on WiiWare and, most recently, Kinectimals for Xbox 360.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mingster #1 1 year ago

    obligatory Elite 4 comment

  • TexMurphy01 #2 1 year ago

    I will ignore this and continue to dream of Elite 4. 'Dream' being the right word because we shall never see it. If we do, it will be for 360, PS3 and mobile phones and it will be a shadow of what the game is supposed to be all about.

  • HermitArcader #3 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • wobbly_Bob #4 1 year ago

    Vaporware, and if its not hope everybody buys this srcond hand bearing in mind his total disregard of consumer rigjts. Sure, there needs to be ways found to make sure the developer makes money from fitst hamd sales but equating srcond hand buyers as bad as pirates is disgusting.

  • crazyhorse174 #5 1 year ago

    @wobbly_Bob: Has someone switched round the keys on your keyboard? Or has the weekend started early?

  • Bongo #6 1 year ago

    I think he's just REALLY wobbly.

  • jefranklin18 #7 1 year ago

    It was bound to happen, 5 years gestation and nothing to show. I can see why they have had trouble finding a publisher.

    While the legacy of Frontier (the game) will always be special, especially to a nerd like me, I do fear that Frontier (the company) will now focus on more casual fare.

    Good luck to all those affected.

  • Red930 #8 1 year ago

    I'll make the "obligatory Elite 4 comment".

    Lets hope Braban has seen the light and those "Some people have been moved" have gone onto the E4 project, because there's a hole the size of London in the market for space trader/shooters in the ilk of Elite right now since Freelancer and Freespace were declared the last of their kind, and the X series over complicated matters. The hole needs to be plugged - and no, EVE is not the answer... I wanna control my ship damnit! With a Joystick!!

    Surely E4 is the one to do it, at least unless someone else cottons onto the idea and snaps up the share.

    Personally I'm hanging out for another Thargoid war in hyperspace in an Imperial Trader...

    Anyway, who wants yet another GTA clone?
    Edited by Red930 at 20/01/11 @ 21:51

  • Stompy #9 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 23:13:35 17-04-2012

  • KungFuSpoon #10 1 year ago

    Two of my friends are among those who got laid off so it is a shame. Though thinking about it I'm not surprised the project is in trouble, when I went to frontier back in 2008 they showed a promo vid for it which was released publicly not long after (or maybe before) and there's been very little since then.
    Edited by KungFuSpoon at 20/01/11 @ 23:52

  • Murton #11 1 year ago

    "one of those things you're forced to do"

    No it isn't. The company is clearly still operating so alternatives did exist, if Braben had said "we discussed a reduction in hours but it wasn't going to work so we had to downsize" then fair enough, but this sounds like P45s were considered the first and only course of action and that's sad. Layoffs of this kind are never totally necessary and stem from poor management, whether it's hiring too many people for the workload or not planning enough work for the company's staffing level.

    At least it's not a "profit-maximising-game's-finished-so-goodbye" layoff, those are a surefire way to anger gamers on this site it seems.

  • frunk #12 1 year ago

    Nah it won't be E4... my guess is some unannounced 3DS stuff... they have been good at popping out family friendly stuff and the release of a new console will offer a good opportunity for them.

    Perhaps even something for the WiiHD.

    But yes, Elite 4 would be nice...

  • cheeseface #13 1 year ago

    Ha. Anyone bothered to mention the other 15 or so staff they laid off the project 3 months ago too or are they brushing that one under the carpet?

  • MrBeens #14 1 year ago

    @JeffFranklin
    It wasn't in gestation for 5 years, it has been in full on production for 3+ years. There was a publisher for it, Codemasters, but they pulled out as they were having money troubles at their end.
    By all accounts the game is virtually finished, which is a shame.

    @cheeseface
    What do you mean by brushing it under the carpet?

  • cheeseface #15 1 year ago

    The article mentions only 17 redundancies. In actuality, there were over 30, the other half were 3 months ago but no-one is mentioning them.

  • obidanshinobi #16 1 year ago

    The Outsider will be coming out soon, along with Eight Days, Killing Day, Heist and the Aliens RPG honestly !!