It’s become a bit of a “tradition” for Ubisoft to release “big games” that “people should totally buy,” and then people totally don’t buy them, or don’t buy them in the numbers they want, or the games are so broken at launch that no one wants to get them because of that lack of quality. In the last year or so, Ubisoft has only had one “successful launch,” and that’s in spite of having a trilogy of releases for 2024, one of which was delayed until 2025. In the case of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft was backhanded when they found out that things were “softer than expected.”
Yes, the game set in a galaxy far, far away didn’t deliver the sales that Ubisoft desired or felt it should get, so they’re officially trying to “improve things” so that gamers will come back to it. They previously released a statement to that effect, and today, they dropped a “roadmap” that highlights what they’re aiming to do with the game over the next two months.
As you can see below, the first thing they will do is a big title update on October 3rd, which promises “Bug Fixes and Improvements.” Then, on October 24th, they’ll drop another update with “Quality of Life Improvements.” Fast forward to November, on the day of the game’s Steam launch, they’ll drop a “Combat and Stealth Improvement” patch alongside some new contracts for Kay Vess to take.
On the one hand, it’s good that Ubisoft is working to fix the flaws within Star Wars Outlaws and trying to make the game better for those who have been attempting to enjoy the title. However, this once again highlights that Ubisoft has been more focused on getting games out than ensuring that the games are READY to come out. One only needs to look at its pirate game from earlier in 2024 to see that they didn’t take the time or energy to make that one great despite its long development time, even with a certain CEO, who is under fire right now, stating it was a “AAAA title.”
With this game, its biggest drawback wasn’t just certain imbalances in the gameplay, especially with the stealth missions; it’s that Ubisoft promised it would be a kind of “grand adventure” that franchise fans “wouldn’t want to miss out on,” and yet, by all accounts, it’s “just another Ubisoft game with a different franchise skin.”
So, one has to wonder whether game sales will improve with these updates and fixes or if gamers have just given up on the title.
