Last week, IGN published an exclusive look at a mission from Star Wars Outlaws. The video gave us our best glimpse of the open worlder so far, but the reception was actually quite negative. At the time of writing, the demo has 588k views, but it's sitting at just 11k likes versus 31k dislikes. And, as you might expect of such a ratio, the comments are absolutely filled with criticism.
Most notably, viewers are pointing out how "unpolished" and "unfinished" Outlaws looks — and with the title's August release date looming, there's concern regarding the game's overall quality. Indeed, there are definitely instances of a dodgy frame rate, alongside some examples of rough animations and visual effects.
Of course, these are exactly the kind of details that detractors will prey upon — but the negatively has sparked a response from Ubisoft itself. When the video, and its criticism, was brought up during the publisher's latest financial call, CFO Frederick Duguet had to respond (as per PC Gamer).
"The game has gone gold, so the date is well confirmed for August 30," said Duguet, as talk of a potential delay emerged. "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," he added.
It goes without saying that the marketing machine for Outlaws will be kicking into full gear soon — and Ubisoft clearly plans on showing much more of the game as we close in on its launch. Here's hoping that this bout of negativity isn't amplified, and Outlaws does eventually deliver.