Outriders demo: Release times, platforms and everything we know

Of the many games launching in the first half of the year, Outriders is one of my most anticipated. A story-driven RPG shooter from People Can Fly (Gears of War: Judgment, Bulletstorm), Outriders was delayed and will now release on April 1, 2021.

However, ahead of its launch, People Can Fly and Square Enix are giving fans a chance to check it out with a demo that kicks off this week. Here’s everything we know about, including the dates, the platforms and more.

Demo date and platforms

The Outriders demo will be available starting February 25. However, the start times vary depending on where you are located. Here are the release times for the demo:

Los Angeles – 09:00 PST – February 25
New York: – 12:00 EST- February 25
Sao Paulo – 14:00 BRT – February 25
London – 17:00 GMT – February 25
Berlin – 18:00 CET – February 25
Moscow – 20:00 MSK – February 25
Dubai – 21:00 GST – February 25
Tokyo – 02:00 JST – February 26
Sydney – 04:00 AEDT – February 26

The demo is completely free with no pre-order or purchase required. It will be available on the following platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Steam & streaming with NVIDIA GeForce NOW).

Crossplay will be available but in “beta form” and will have to be enabled manually via your settings. Crossplay will be fully supported when the full game launches allowing everyone to play together regardless of what platform.

There is no time limit for how long you can play the demo and there are no plans for People Can Fly to stop offering it. Even after the game launches, you’ll be able to download the demo, so no worries if you can’t get to it right away.

Demo size and pre-loading

The Outriders demo will require a minimum 24GB on PC and 22GB on consoles, though that number could go up after decompression. Unfortunately, pre-loading is not currently planned which means you’ll have to download the demo after it goes live.

What’s included in the Outriders demo

In a lengthy Twitter post, People Can Fly offered all sorts of details regarding the demo — and they were specific in pointing out that it’s a demo, not a beta. This suggests that the game you are playing is reflective of the one that will be released in April, albeit a very small slice of it.

The demo will include the game’s prologue and opening chapter up until the showdown with Guass, the first rival Altered. Once you defeat Guass, you’ll unlock some additional side missions that take you through the open-world so you’ll be able to keep playing. As the demo is only the opening segments, the gear you get and enemies you encounter will be “the early game varients.”

The main campaign is estimated to run 25-30 hours for a single class, but can be up to two or three times longer depending on side quests, post-campaign and additional content. So it sounds like there will be plenty to do in the full game and you don’t have to worry about the demo eating up a ton of it.

Character levels are capped at Level 7, allowing you to earn your class’s 4th ability and mix and match active skills. You’ll also earn two skill points that can be applied to the skill tree. All 4 classes and 6 character slots will be opened, which means you can try every single class without having to delete any characters.

If you complete all of the tasks and find yourself looking for more of a challenge, you can increase the difficulty system up to World Tier 5. At World Tier 5, your chance to find higher rarity gear is increased; however, the drop chance for Legendary Gear is still “extremely low.” Outriders will ultimately feature up to 15 different World Tiers, so while Tier 5 is the highest in the demo, you will be able to up the challenge when the full game releases.