There is no shortage of thrilling Star Wars games to enjoy. We recently had the launch of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and now we know next year, we’ll get our hands on Star Wars Outlaws. The video game had a bit of a showcase this past month, thanks to both the Xbox Games Showcase and Ubisoft Forward events. However, while we haven’t seen any new footage yet on the video game project, new details did emerge from the development team. This past weekend we had the SDCC, and thanks to an IGN report, we’re finding out that we can expect at least one familiar criminal overlord to show up.
IGN had the chance to speak with the director of Star Wars Outlaws, Julian Gerighty. During their conversation, the topic of Jabba the Hutt came up. We all know this iconic character from the original Star Wars trilogy. This evil gangster has quite the reach in the criminal underground along with ties to politics, making him quite the force to deal with. Details are scarce, but according to the IGN report, we’ll deal with Jabba the Hutt somehow, which could even mean betraying him. Just how that might work out for our protagonist Kay Vess will be a mystery for now.
If you don’t recall, Star Wars Outlaws does take place during the original trilogy of Star Wars films. Specifically, we’re set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. So while we will apparently get to visit some familiar places in the franchise, it looks like the developers from Massive Entertainment were encouraged to make something new from Lucasfilm Games. That’s where they came up with Toshara, a new area for players to explore that takes inspiration from a real-life location.
The developers gained inspiration from eastern African Savannah as the team visited Tanzania to capture the area for their game. But Lucasfilm has a rule of 80/20 for designing locations. Essentially, 80% of the world should look familiar to viewers while 20% should remain as something more alien to us. As a result, the game’s visuals shouldn’t feel too out of the ordinary but enough to still hold true with other previous works from the Star Wars franchise.
Star Wars Outlaws is set to launch at some point in 2024. Players will take the role of Key Vess, an outlaw scoundrel who is attempting the biggest heist the Outer Rim has ever seen. You’ll find this game available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms when it releases.