Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has pointed to “waning interest” in the Star Wars franchise as the primary reason behind Star Wars Outlaws‘ disappointing commercial performance. During a recent shareholder meeting, Guillemot described the Star Wars brand as being in “choppy waters” at the time of the game’s launch, suggesting that franchise fatigue played a big part in the title’s underwhelming sales figures.
Star Wars Outlaws, developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, was released as the first true open-world Star Wars game. Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the game follows new protagonist Kay Vess as she moves through the criminal underworld of the galaxy far, far away. Despite the exciting premise and the Star Wars license, the game failed to meet Ubisoft’s sales expectations.
Guillemot’s explanation notably avoids several other reasons that may have played into the game’s lackluster performance. At launch, Outlaws got a lot of criticism for bugs, performance issues, and missing gameplay features. While later patches fixed a lot of these problems, the rough start probably hurt early sales and slowed down word-of-mouth recommendations.
The CEO’s comments are pretty different from how other recent Star Wars games have done. Titles like Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel Jedi: Survivor, both made by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA, saw strong sales and plenty of positive reviews. Because of that, many are questioning if Star Wars interest really is dying down, or if something else is going on.
Industry watchers have mentioned Ubisoft’s tendency to use the same open-world formula in many of its franchises as another possible culprit behind Outlaws‘ struggles. The company has gotten more and more flak for recycling the same gameplay style, which has left some gamers feeling tired of the usual Ubisoft formula. The high $70 price tag and the usual expectation that Ubisoft games drop in price soon after release may have also put people off from buying early.
When Outlaws was released also had some people talking. The Star Wars brand has gotten mixed reviews lately, but well-done stuff like the Andor series and the Jedi games show that folks are still totally up for quality Star Wars content.
Technical problems aside, some fans have given Outlaws props for its spot-on Star Wars vibe, detailed environments, and for switching things up with a focus on the criminal side of the galaxy instead of the usual Jedi and Sith conflicts. Still, that hasn’t been enough to make up for a bumpy launch, pricing concerns, and what might just be players getting tired of the same old formula.
