Update: As if the performance issues weren't enough, Digital Foundry's Alexander Battaglia has highlighted a new issue over on Twitter. Jedi: Survivor's trigger-happy DRM is apparently so sensitive that it won't let you install it on two computers in quick succession. Battaglia was told "Too many computers have accessed this account's version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor recently" when he tried to install it on a second machine.
Original story: Another month, another big game release, another shitty PC port. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor hit shelves yesterday and for all the tweaks, enhancements, and additional beards it boasts over its predecessor, its performance is leaving a lot to be desired. In Morgan Park's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review for PCG, he lamented its "unacceptable performance" but hoped a promised pre-release patch would improve things. If Steam reviews and social media are anything to go by, it hasn't.
Jedi: Survivor currently sits at a 31% Mostly Negative review score on Steam, with legions of players posting descriptions of their many expensive, beefy rigs and how badly Jedi: Survivor manages to run on them.
"How do you push out a game with stuttering IN THE FIRST CUTSCENE!?" reads a review by a Steam user called AdamB, who says they have a "a very good NVMe drive and system, and yet this game runs terribly". "It only took me 10 mins in a small enclosed area to get bad performance. Don't buy this game until it's fixed."
Another, from Ty Rants, says they're "Stuck between 36-41 fps regardless if anything is changed (performance mode, resolution, low, medium settings)" and notes that the game is just another in a long line of bad ports: "This now makes like the 6th AAA game to release broken on PC at launch this year alone. (**** us PC gamers right)".
Still, at least some players are taking the opportunity to write some seriously poetic stuff. A review from Spartan says the game "Runs like my ass after taco bell". I can only aspire to criticism so simultaneously concise and evocative.
It's the same story across the internet. Reddit user astrangebiscuit calls Jedi: Survivor the "Worst PC port" they've ever seen, saying they can't even obtain 60fps on their RTX 4080. Still, at least they managed to launch it. Some users who pre-ordered and preloaded the game were told it would take over a year to unpack it, although that might be a problem with Steam itself rather than Jedi: Survivor.
I imagine that a few months and several patches from now, Jedi: Survivor will run just fine, and cease being (in the words of a player called Santiago Santiago) "Star Wars CPU Survivor". But it's a rank absurdity that so many big-budget games from multi-billion dollar companies just keep releasing like this. Whether it's the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, The Last of Us, or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, publishers keep asking full price for games that clearly aren't done yet. It's got to stop.
