Star Wars Outlaws should be an easy win for Ubisoft. It's Grand Theft Auto meets sci-fi fantasy, a mouthwatering prospect, but something about it fails to click with me. I could be one of many players giving it another shake later this year, though, when it arrives on Nintendo Switch 2. Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, speaks about the game's lofty goals in a recent 'general meeting,' and relays how developer Massive is making huge improvements to the game.
You see, Star Wars Outlaws didn't sell that well, especially in comparison to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which EA dropped a year before it. According to Guillemot, the Star Wars brand's reputation as of late is a factor to consider. "We didn't reach our sales targets […] the game suffered from a number of items. First, it suffered from the fact that it was released at a time when the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters," he comments.
While he doesn't mention why there's trouble with Star Wars' reputation, Guillemot is likely referring to the disappointing reception to The Acolyte. Despite the odds stacked against Star Wars Outlaws, he affirms that Massive's steadfast mission to address bugs and concerns is where the Nintendo Switch 2's version will soar: "We did heavily improve the game by troubleshooting and debugging. When it will be released on upcoming consoles such as the [Nintendo] Switch 2, it will have a new version of the game. Improvements on the game are not finished."
Could it be enough to make the new Switch game a worthy pickup? I'm willing to give it another go, even if my first impressions are still middling. After six hours of exploring, shooting, and driving across Tatooine, I wasn't compelled to keep going. Many of Outlaws' ideas felt at odds with each other, hesitating to embrace the open-world game fun that Ubisoft hits like Watch Dogs 2 excel at.
I checked out of the Star Wars series, at least in movies and TV, a while ago. The Mandalorian's third season slowly trudged along. The Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte are disposable. I'm told repeatedly in my group WhatsApp chat that Andor is worth watching, but I feel too burned out by Star Wars at this point. The best stories are happening in the Jedi subseries, as the adventures of Cal Kestis are the most important Star Wars games worth playing right now.
In the meantime, I recommend a different kind of sci-fi thrill, and that's the one found in Dune Awakening. Funcom's excellent MMORPG take on Frank Herbert's acclaimed novels is scratching my large-scale adventure itch right now. There's an ace Dune Awakening Steam Deck deal right now, too.
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