After a not-great response to a recent 10-minute IGN First gameplay preview of the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws, Ubisoft says the August 30 release date is locked in, and the game will not be delayed.
We've generally liked what we've seen of Star Wars Outlaws so far, with some caveats attached. Staff writer Morgan Park called it out in a June preview for being overly cautious, for instance, saying the game's real potential lies in its open world, which Ubisoft didn't showcase during that event.
"What I played were three disconnected missions that showed off three things you'll be doing a lot of in Outlaws: climbing and shooting, sneaking and shooting, and flying and shooting," he wrote. "I had fun in all three, though not as much as I imagined."
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Ubisoft may not be having as much fun in the wake of the IGN First gameplay preview as it imagined either. A day after it went up on YouTube, the video has drawn 13,000 dislikes, compared to just 8,000 likes. The reaction was swift and negative enough to get the attention of a Bank of America analyst, who noted the "relatively mixed reviews" during a financial call today and asked whether Ubisoft might delay the game in response.
Ubisoft generally isn't shy about delaying games, even at the last minute: One of the many Skull and Bones delays, for instance, happened less than two months before its then-scheduled launch date of November 8, 2022. But Ubisoft says that's not going to happen with Star Wars Outlaws.
"The game has gone gold, so the date is well confirmed for August 30," Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet said when asked about the possibility of a delay due to the response to the preview video. "We'll shortly be seeing more content of very high quality and multiple hours that will really show the depths of the open world that is a key element of the promise to enjoy the exploration of the galaxy with multiple planets, so that should bode well for the game in terms of high-quality delivery."
"As we've said also for Star Wars, the level of quality of the world and the experience is really very high," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot added. "We are really leveraging our engine, and I think people will love it."
It's possible that some of the negative reaction to the video is driven by a broader dissatisfaction with the state of the nigh-omnipresent Star Wars franchise, or perhaps simple exhaustion with the whole thing. Ubisoft's decision to recycle, again, so many tired, overused elements of the setting in its big gameplay presentation probably didn't help: "A literal galaxy of diverse planets, literally endless creative potential, and they send us back to the planetary equivalent of a manila envelope," as one commenter put it, which quite frankly I think is the big problem with Star Wars as a whole.
But the vast majority of the criticism in the YouTube comments are focused on specific elements of the game: The most common complaints include noticeably low and varying frame rates, poor visual effects, non-reactive AI, and a general feeling that Star Wars Outlaws looks a whole lot rougher than it should for something coming out in August. And I don't think Ubisoft can just blow it off as background noise from a small group of Star Wars-hatin' malcontents, either. When the reaction to your gameplay showcase is negative enough that financial analysts are asking if you're thinking about pumping the brakes, well, if your answer is "no" then you better hope your next gameplay showcase absolutely knocks it out of the park.
