Star Wars: Outlaws had a chance to reach new players and pull developer Ubisoft out of the red when it released last week on Steam.
It failed.
The concurrent player count for Star Wars: Outlaws on Steam failed to reach 2,500 players in its debut weekend – Steam
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The deeply unpopular Star Wars title failed to draw a massive PC audience, resulting in a concurrent player count in its debut weekend that fell short of 2,500 players worldwide. This would be a terrible showing for any Triple A title, but it’s even worse for a major Star Wars release featuring classic characters like Jabba the Hutt.
Outlaws faced a number of problems right away.
First, it presented another female-focused Star Wars story to a fanbase that has become exhausted by the concept. After the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Acolyte, Rogue One, Ahsoka, and season three of The Mandalorian, a lot of Star Wars fans are burnt out on girl power.
(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
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The main character of the game, Kay Vess, was played by Humberly González.
However, the developers tweaked the actress’s appearance, making her less conventionally attractive. Many saw this as an intentional virtue signal on the part of Ubisoft and Lucasfilm. Fans worldwide have noted this trend among Triple A games, in which female characters are deliberately made less attractive while male characters are often overly sexualized.
A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft
Then there’s the fact that the game came from Ubisoft.
The French developer has had a rough go of things lately, with massive controversy rising from its decision to make a black historical figure the central male protagonist in its upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Shadows title instead of a Japanese man. Ubisoft has also come under fire in the past for perceived predatory microtransactions meant to sap every last nickel and dime from its players.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
It also didn’t help that the game had a disastrous console rollout.
Outlaws was incredibly buggy, with game breaking glitches causing a ton of player frustration. The ultimate edition of Outlaws also included early access for players who shelled out the extra money. However, a glitch and subsequent patch caused all early access PS5 players to lose their saved game file, forcing them to start over from scratch and negating the early access feature they paid for.
A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft
Ubisoft recently admitted that Star Wars: Outlaws had been a flop for the company, noting that sales had been softer than anticipated while also touting some positive critical scores.
Star Wars: Outlaws has 1,656 Steam players as of this writing. The game is currently listed at 25% off in the Steam store.
Will you be playing Star Wars: Outlaws on Steam? Did you try it on console? Can Ubisoft possibly turn this troubled title around? Sound off and let us know your thoughts!
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Yeah, I love Star Wars games after playing KOTOR 1 & 2 but after seeing all the crap about this game, and the main character, I won’t even buy this game when it’s reduced $1.50