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Square Enix teasing mysterious sci-fi game Outriders for E3 reveal

Marvel related or something else?

Square Enix is teasing a mysterious new sci-fi game by the name of Outriders, set to be unveiled in full during its E3 presentation next week.

An Outriders account has been active on Twitter since 1st May this year, although its existence has only recently been widely shared. In that time, 13 tweets have been posted, written as mission logs from a Captain Simon B. Archan.

Each post charts the next stage in the journey of the starship Flores as it makes its way toward Enoch - a voyage "which may well be humanity's last hope and salvation". By the end of the tweets, the Flores has reached its destination, and is in orbit of Enoch, "but the time has come to begin dismantling her and preparing for our new home".

A (presumably) final tweet, featuring a short video of a character waking from cryostasis, ditches the mission log format to announce that Outriders will debut at Square Enix's E3 showcase.

Despite the looming reveal, there have, inevitably, been attempts to decipher the mystery of Outriders ahead of time. We know, for instance, that Square filed a European trademark for something called Outriders last May - which was, back then, speculated to be linked to the publisher's "triple-A" collaboration with Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly.

There's also some evidence to suggest that Outriders could be connected to Square's long-awaited Avengers game - after all, Outriders, an aggressive species of dog-like aliens, feature in both most recent Avengers movies. Additionally, Square's trademark application appeared shortly after their cinematic debut.

That doesn't mean the games are one and the same, of course; the Outriders Twitter account is separate from that of the Avengers game, so perhaps this is a different project created as part of Square and Marvel's multi-game partnership. And there's always the very real possibility that the whole Marvel connection is pure coincidence and Outriders isn't related at all.

Whatever the truth, there's not long until all is revealed; Square Enix's E3 showcase is scheduled to take place next week, at 2am on Tuesday, 11th June in the UK.