People Can Fly is the developer behind the fairly well received Outriders that came out in early April. The studio has come out to say that they have no idea just how many copies of the game has been sold, they have not earned any royalties from the game, and it may not have been profitable for their publisher, Square Enix.
The reveal came from People Can Fly's investor website. The company explains that due to their agreement with Square Enix, it would receive any royalties for the game's first quarter of sales by August 16, 2021. That date has come and gone now and no payments have been made by Square Enix, leading People Can Fly to assume that the revenues for the game were lower than the costs of production.
Executive Sebastian Wojciechowski says that they estimate sales to be between 2 and 3 million units. They assumed that that many sales would "ensure profitability for this project in the first quarter of sales." He continues on to suggest that the game wasn't profitable because of Square Enix, be it through distribution partnerships or that Square Enix spent more than expected on releasing the game.
Wojciechowski says that the game is still being worked on by the studio. He says that he expects there to be some more promotional efforts made by Square Enix. He also expects more sales to be made in the near future and says that the company expects royalties to begin later this year.
People Can Fly currently has three projects in development. One of those will be published by Square Enix and the second will be through Take-Two. The third will be self-published.
I think they have a spending problem, which is weird because i don't even remember seeing any marketing for the game, compared to FF7 Remake which was marketed to hell and back.