Star Wars Outlaws Gets More Bad Sales News

Summary

• Star Wars Outlaws is underperforming compared to 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
• Ubisoft's stock prices declined significantly following Star Wars Outlaws' August 2024 launch.
• Negative player feedback regarding combat and stealth mechanics contributed to the game's poor reception.

Adding to the challenges facing Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft's open-world title is reportedly being outsold by 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Despite initially positive reviews upon its August 2024 launch, player dissatisfaction with the combat and stealth mechanics impacted its overall reception. While Ubisoft addressed these issues with subsequent updates, these changes failed to significantly improve player sentiment.

This underwhelming performance translated into disappointing sales figures, with Ubisoft acknowledging the game fell short of expectations in September. Ubisoft's stock experienced a sharp drop shortly after Star Wars Outlaws' August 27, 2024 release, raising concerns about the publisher's financial stability and sparking discussions about a potential privatization. Despite these setbacks, Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment remain optimistic about the game's future, citing planned post-launch DLC as a potential catalyst for a turnaround.

However, a recent report by VGC and former GamesIndustry.biz journalist Christopher Dring casts further doubt on this optimism. The report indicates that Star Wars Outlaws is not only underperforming but is also being outsold by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. While precise sales figures remain undisclosed, Respawn Entertainment's single-player action sequel clearly outperformed the open-world title. In Europe, Star Wars Outlaws recently placed 47th in the 2024 best-selling video game rankings.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Outselling Star Wars Outlaws

Several factors likely contributed to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's success over Star Wars Outlaws. Jedi: Survivor benefited from being a sequel to the already popular Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and it received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its April 2023 release. Furthermore, EA and Respawn's release of a PS4 and Xbox One update last year rekindled interest in Cal Kestis's adventure.

Conversely, Outlaws struggled to gain traction, despite ongoing updates and story DLC from Massive Entertainment. The first expansion, Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card, released in November, featured Kay Vess teaming up with Lando Calrissian. A second DLC storyline, Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate's Fortune, is scheduled for Spring 2025 and will include the return of the popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars character, Hondo Ohnaka.