Report Finds Lack of Star Wars Outlaws Sales Disturbing

Ubisoft right now:

Yeah, who doesnt know that in 6 months time you can expect 50% sale and finally fixed game?
Thats what they have promised, for coming months, to fix the game.

I'm burnt out on SW products and have been for years. Won't touch this.

I really love Star Wars, I enjoy open world games, and I find Ubisoft games straightforward forward, comforting and fun – but I still haven’t bought Outlaws yet. I didn’t even feel like I would be missing out by not pre-ordering or buying day one. Not sure exactly what the problem is, but if someone like me doesn’t have FOMO, it can’t be good for players that aren’t the exact target audience.

Bought it on release, finished the game and enjoyed every second of it. It is not the best SW game for sure, but still a good game that captures the SW vibe perfectly.
I still do not get why this gets so much hate, I am sure 80% of the haters did not even play or tried it.

You forger this IP might cost a lot to Ubi. Disney taking also a big part of the profit on Outlaws. Which is not the case for the Division or Far cry

By all means panda to a certain audience, but don't be surprised if other's (the majority) don't buy into it.

Really quite simple.

When for years you get players used to not expecting quality at launch, they also get used to waiting a few months to buy the thing on a deep sale... or used to just ignoring your output period.

Was so ready for this game, just waiting to hand over my cash but then I saw gameplays of it and was yet again disappointed.
Thankfully i learned my lesson about pre ordering long ago

A lot will come on here and suggest it relates to culture war zombie conditioning from a vocal chronically online minority that think themselves a majority. However, it wasn't that and the reasoning was far more simple and gamer centric.

I think hands on reviews really hurt this game and justifiably so. It seemed plenty were interested but unsure pre release.
However, When reviews and play throughs at release started to highlight the very simple and basic stealth and combat design coupled with horrible AI, in a game primarily focused on that very loop, many "noped out."

Ubisoft is plagued with trying to make games appeal to the widest audience through simplicity. In this case by doing so and releasing even that unpolished, the game appealed to a much more narrow crowd.

Nobody that likes stealth gameplay mechanics wants it this watered down and boring. It is the antithesis to what makes stealth challenging and fun.

At one point I was so buying this game. Then all the trailers looked progressively worse which put me off.

Right now, I'm playing MGSV for the first time and the stealth mechanics are incredible. I can't go from that level of stealth to what I've seen in Outlaws, no matter how many bugs they squash.

The Star Wars label does not immediately grant sales like it used to. The general decreasing quality of the Disney output doesn't help either.

I have had no interest in Disney star wars in yeaaaaars, and Ubisoft have terrible writing and stories in their games and humdrum gameplay. I think a lot of people feel similar

@J_e_f_f__D Explain how its pandering?

@Enigk Completely agree with this one. I used to like Star Wars but I can't really say that anymore, the vast majority of the recent SW output is not great, aside from a few bright spots. I just can't be bothered with Star Wars anymore.

@Gaia093 Very well said.

Im surprised that Star Wars fans didn't gobble it up, and guarantee all parties will take the wrong message from this.

Got to say that headline is brilliant! It really does feel like there a curse around Ubisoft this year. If people haven't heard of star wars 1313, I would suggest looking it up, as to me that idea/concept is what this game should of gone for.

This is an easy one for me, it came out with good but not great reviews, including sections that are on people's most hated types of game design list.

It ripped people off with the early access because the game has a game breaking bug in the release version and a new save was needed to be able to finish it. This also means the version on disc is forever broken.

They forced ray-tracing and the hardware struggles with it.

And finally, consumers know that every Ubisoft game will be half price within 6 months, so why buy a broken buggy game for £60+ when it will be £30 soon enough.

Not to mention, there are some actual good, finished games out.

Is playing the game on Ubisoft+ added into those numbers?
Because that's the cheapest way to play each and every one of their games even at launch, and many people know it.
Paying 18$ for 1 month to play a game that most likely you won't play a second time, trumps paying 70$ for it's retail version any day.
Should I add you have direct access to the Deluxe or Ultimate editions on the service? That's 18$ VS 100-120$ right there.

@Skeletor85 I played it too. I don't hate it, I just find it boring, repetitive and like every other Ubisoft game. Also, considering how much variety the Star Wars franchise can give, the environments looked boring.

I think what killed this game is not hate, but indifference. People grew tired of the Ubisoft formula.

@Enigk Andor and The Bad Batch might be some of the best Star Wars ever, and they’re both recent Disney shows. I think it’s less the quality and more that Star Wars is in such a messy place because it means so many different things to different people. To some it’s just the OG, others prefer the prequel trilogy, some say animated Star Wars is the best, many think Legends was better, sometimes it’s too childish, other times too serious. Considering it’s almost 50 years old now, it’s no surprise people don’t align on what it is and should be. It’s better just to pick and choose the bits that appeal to you and leave the rest.

When companies release lacklustre / buggy / unoptimised games, they get a reputation - they may get a few passes, but once a reputation sticks.... (This is how i feel about capcom at the moment).

• everyone knows Ubi put everything on sale in like month 2, often with a lot off.

I don't think 1 million copies are enough to recoup the cost when Ubisoft said for Outlaws they did the biggest marketing campaign in their history.
https://fextralife.com/star-wars-outlaws-will-have-the-biggest-marketing-campaign-in-ubisofts-history/

The marketing budget alone could cost more than $100+ million and combine with development + Star Wars license cost, i say the total budget could be in the $300-350+ million range. So, 1 million copies is a flop.

For comparison, Insomniac Spider-Man 2 total budget was $300 million already include marketing + licensing. And they recoup the cost when the game sold 5 million copies (right now it sit at 11 million copied).

And outside Outlaw mediocre quality and Ubisoft bad track records with buggy launch games, i agreed that Star Wars brand popularity could impact Outlaws sales because it's at the lowest point thanks to Disney milking the franchise with many, not all, bad tv shows & movies.

Ubisoft have primed people to not buy their games upon release as they'll deeply discount them within months. I'm interested in buying the game but I've been burned so many times by Black Friday or Christmas sales when the games price drops upto 50% (and it's received multiple patches). Why would anyone clued in bother buying upon release now?

I was literally given the game for free. I got a key bundled with my new graphics card. Total surprise, had no idea when I ordered the card.

I redeemed the key on my Ubisoft account but didn’t install it.

Why, given that I actually like Ubisoft open world games and Star Wars was also my childhood passion 40 odd years ago?

The reason is that Disney has destroyed the licence. I no longer have any interest and it actually repels me versus if Ubisoft had made an original new IP.

The protagonist looks utterly unappealing and uninspiring.

Simple as that.

The coming downfall of Ubisoft is both delicious and deserved.
Anti-consumer to its core, it took its fans for granted and looked out only for its shareholders - both of which are now deserting it in droves.

@Shinnok789 Depends on what you play. $216 is more than I spend on their games in a year, that's for sure.

I didn't buy it per se but I got it as a gift from a friend of mine but I didn't touch it yet. I'm still playing WuKong and Astro Bot and I don't think I'll touch Star Wars anytime soon.

I didn't buy the game yet because there were other games releasing around the same time that I wanted more. And buying Ubisoft games at launch is risky.

Is Star Wars still as big as before? In the past you could release a star wars game and it would sell big but didn't Disney pretty much butchered the franchise and made it less relevant.

Ubisoft really need to clean house, they have so many employee compared to nintendo but their games output is night and day difference in the quality and quantity departement, and nintendo also do hardware.

Just think if outlaws stared a grunting white guy it would have sold the exact same amount but there would be fewer incels in the comments.

Who'd have thought the kids at the orphanage would eventually tire of gruel?

@Skeletor85
Purchase bias. You paid up front for something and were more willing to overlook its shortcomings as a consequence. We've all been guilty of it. When you haven't bought the game, and watch some of the gameplay videos that did the rounds of dumb AI and outdated stealth mechanics, it's much easier to see it for what it is and pass on it.

@DennisReynolds It has (whisper it) a wooman, so it must be pandering.

It's clear that a lacklustre preview cycle hurt the enthusiasm around the game. That, coupled with a conditioned expectation of significant discounts within the first 6-12 months, has led to these sales.

The only way Ubisoft can turn this around, is by focusing on quality at launch. That will lead to better previews, a better day one experience and eventually, better sales. For Outlaws, it might already be too late, unless they can do almost a soft relaunch with a huge update.

Take of 20 million in taxes 10 million in shipping costs.
And marketing paying youtubers to say the game was good.
They should have kept han solo as the main character.
Instead they took the 30 million in government funding and made the main character a nobody.

@Fartingale blame it on us for making an awe full game

@jrt87 yes, seeing videos pointing out what's wrong with something gives you a much better sense of a game than actually playing it.

Makes sense.

I enjoyed this more than Fallen Order.

Should’ve released it as a PlayStation exclusive /s

While the sales are definitely poor, it's hilarious to see people in the comments thinking this will be the downfall of Ubisoft.

@Ainu20 the studio took 30 million in government funding from sweden.
Thats all new star wars does these days.
Writers these days can't write good characters anymore.
I have grown up with 9 sisters.
I couldn' care less about the gender.
My sisters never cared about it while playing their games.

@colonelkilgore hey at least it sold better then concord.

@Ainu20 butt ugly woman in strange wig knocks out trained soldiers with bare hands and sub-par animations. I'm not sure who it's pandering to either.

People are done with ubislop.

@naruball Yes, conclusions can be drawn from gameplay footage and the write-ups of others.

That's the premise undergirding the video game review industry.

@jrt87 no unlike you I actually played the game, like I already said it’s not the best game but it definitely deserves more recognition than it gets now.
‘You paid up front’ - I didn’t even preorder the game, I got it on release day like I literally said.

Just to throw in my two cents regarding the main character. I do not believe that anyone beyond the most egregious sexist cares that she is a woman.

My problem is that I'm just kind of sick of playing these morally grey antagonists. I like playing the hero - or at least the everyman. Too many games today expect me to connect with someone who is a piece of trash and I just cannot do that. GTA is the exception purely because Rockstar have some of the best writers in the industry.

That headline is just great 😀

@Skeletor85 I didn´t play it and I probably won´t because Ubisoft open world design makes me sick to my stomach.
From what I gathered from various media though:

• really buggy in parts
• stealth is absolutely barebones even though it´s a big part of the game
• instant loss stealth (cringe)
• illusion of choice instead of any actual choices
• only 1 permanent gun & you can´t carry the weapons you find further than the next staircase
• dumb AI in both combat and stealth

I daresay this game only broke a million copies due to the Star Wars name attached to it. If it wasn´t themed, this would have been a complete disaster

Ubisoft to gamers as it burns: I HAAAATE YOOOOOOOOU!!!!!!

I think Fenyx 2 would've sold better but what do I know?

@Skeletor85 Bought on release day is the same as preordering. You bought it at the top of the market and are more likely to look past its deficiencies.

I actually played Wukong, but saw several saying they weren't interested in it and wouldn't be buying it based upon review footage and what they'd read about it's gameplay/level structure. I didn't suggest to them that their opinions were null and void because I was playing it and they weren't.

This slapdash game deserved to undersell. Ubisoft would have happily pushed Shadows out in its buggy state if they got away with it with Outlaws, but at last the consumer hit them in the wallet and have forced them to bring a more finished product to market.

@sanderson72 I'm so sad we aren't getting a Fenyx 2. I loved the first one so much...

I mean, there's an ancient Chinese proverb that roughly translates to "Never pre-order from Ubisoft," so...

As this is the most active news story, Argos has 30th Anniversary Dualsense in stock for preorder now if anybody in UK was still interested.

Disney and its partners like Ubisoft have ruined Star Wars. Star Wars is no longer about being cool, badass, and heroic. It is about promoting diversity, checking cismale privilege, and advancing "powerful" female characters. Disney has single-handedly destroyed the biggest and most iconic franchise in American culture and history.
On topic, 1 million sales are nothing these days considering AAA videogame game budgets going over $200 million. A game needs to sell at least 3 to 5 million on launch and then sell steadily for the next couple of years to make the devs and publishers money.

The campaign for battlefront 2 EA is better than star wars outlaws.

Ubisoft were hoping the name of star wars and the pet were enough to sell this rushjob of a game, shouldn't have been called outlaws in the first place because Kay is more of a goody two shoes type than the typical outlaw i.e deacon

But all those people on r/PS5 said for months they were gonna buy it. Oh no. Anyways.

I've never liked Star Wars, never seen the films. Why would I when people can only universally agree the first three are good. I'll stick with the old Lego games and the Survivor games.

Ubisoft makes games for shareholders, not people. The most corporate slop imaginable. Open world, paid XP boosters, skin shop with dozens of ***** options, broken at launch, on sale heavily within a year simply to pad metrics and get people owning the game because capitalism is all about "GROWTH, GROWTH, GROWTH BABY!", stale and boring mechanics that haven't been fun since the 2010s, awful writing, sometimes passable voice acting and oh yeah, the fact that they no longer want you to own the games you "buy." (Support physical media by the way.)

You don't hate Ubisoft enough.

I blame Disney more than I blame Ubisoft for this, honestly. I haven't enjoyed a single thing that LucasFilm has put out since Disney bought it, and gave up caring about (and watching) SW after Solo.
That's the risk with licensed properties, if the licensor runs the franchise into the ground, you're kinda screwed.

I played it for £14.99 through Ubisoft plus maybe them adding games day one to a subscription service also hurt sales.

Outlaws just isn't appealing to me, if you're going to make a game around the original Star Wars trilogy, then I'd say there's way more obvious things to be doing then what this looks like

Go woke go broke Ubi.

I’ll buy it for £30 in 6 months after updates have improved performance etc.

Ubisoft your past actions have had the above consequences you are now experiencing.

I haven't played outlaws yet, so I guess I am part of the problem.

People complain about no games on playstation, but the fact is there are too many good games. So, I think it is more difficult for games to stand out of the crowd.

Concerning ubisoft in particular, it seems that ubisoft has an image problem. The last "ubisoft-game" I played was FarCry6, which I think was a pretty good game, and partially excellent (a fun sandbox with lots of activities, good cast, an okay story, some very good side stories). I think the reception was very mixed, though. People seem to consider all "ubisoft-games" budget games to pick up for 10$. People seem to completely ignore the typically excellent worlds You can find in ubisoft games. They may not live up to the best of the best games. But, they are certainly not utter trash. And it seems to me also that people nitpick on every detail in "ubisoft-games" while they are more forgiving to other titles.

Another problem might be, that with e3 gone, the single market place to raise awareness for new games disappeared. I could imagine that in the past ubisoft profited from showing their games close to big playstation,xbox and nintendo shows, but now they are more hidden among all the various conventions, show cases or state-of-plays.

I got comfortable not owning this game.
That's what they wanted after all.

I didn't buy it because it was just TOO Star Wars. I've seen all the movies and played a few games, but I wouldn't call myself a Star Wars fan. But, I bought both Jedi Survivor games because they had a lot of similar gameplay elements from Uncharted/Tomb Raider/Dark Souls.

@Skeletor85 I am about half way through, really enjoying it so far, sure it has it's faults but I am enjoying it, Nix is awesome and I quite like ND-5!!

@jrt87 appreciate the shout there buddy, I am hoping to get my Pro from them next week 🤞

Two reasons I didn't buy it DRM and price, if I can't own my game I'm not likely to pay a lot for it, even without DRM I wouldn't be paying that kind of money for a new game, do you want to sell 100 games at £50 or do you want to sell 50 games at a £100

Well that's what happens when you put your games day one on a subscription service....

Also as people know well by now, ubisoft games go dirt cheap in sales after a few months.

Star Wars for me is not a draw to buy games. In fact it is something i avoid. I dont care how good it is. I dont like as the World turns in space. That is just me though.

I’m surprised it even got that many sales.

A less than mediocre game, delivered with a bunch of bugs and ***** ai. It tried to be too many things and did none of them very well, and it got a Star Wars paint of coat, to help shift it, as no one would have any interest otherwise.
Maybe they should have concentrated on making it a good game, before making it a Star Wars game.

@J_e_f_f__D I don't think you're using "pander" correctly there...

Regardless, the target market for this game is one of the biggest going. The surprise is it didn't sell gangbusters.

Well Ubisoft told me to get used to not owning my games, and I'm doing that by getting used to not buying their games. Simples.

(I'd buy a new Trials or Rayman game in a heartbeat, but there's no sign of either).

@idiotthechef Andor was very good and I preferred Rebels over the other animated series. The rest has been pretty meh although the books and comics I have read have generally been better.
I enjoyed Fallen Order but Survivor was just too much of the same for me. I will play Outlaws when they have fixed the game and all the content is done. If they shipped complete games day one I may be more inclined to purchase day one.

Personally the stealth has put me off.

In general people are going to have to start looking at subscriptions.

Look how many say I’ll wait for it to hit plus/gp. Or I’m glad I waited for it to hit a sub as I wasn’t sure on it etc.

For me this is what is starting to cause issues. There’s so much choice on subscriptions they don’t need to pay £70 or whatever.

Starfield only had 13million Players, not even sales (this was on a graphic few months ago) and that’s for a tentpole AAA first party studio.

SE saying nothing is hitting targets, gamers are just spending less on new purchases.

And casuals are throwing it at micro transactions. - and then people wonder why Sony want a slice.

Played it with Ubisoft+ on PC, and after about 4-5 hours, I dropped out, and never returned.
The game is so damn generic, that if it didn't use the Star Wars license, nobody would have given a ***** about it.
The gameplay and controls are so janky, that the stealth sections becomes a chore to play.
Don't like the reputation system either. Make one small mistake, and it can mess up everything you were trying to build up.

@jrt87 "actually the people who HAVEN'T played it are the more informed ones" is a wild hot take for you to make no matter how you slice it.

Disney worked pretty hard to destroy fame of Star Wars and they were so good in it so there appeared people who hate Star Wars. At least it achieved status of low-mediocre franchise. So making something Star Wars is rather risk now. And with combination of Ubisoft's lack of quality, except graphics, they should be happy as puppy they managed to sell over million copies.

The Industry has conditioned us to buy later, better product for less money. I'm sure this isn't the only reason but if for any reason you are on the fence for any game it makes zero sense to get in early. It's taken more than a decade but I guess consumers are starting to wise up now that money is tighter for most people.

@MrPeanutbutterz Ubisoft told me to get used to not owning my games

Not sure if you are just teasing, but that is not what the person from Ubisoft said, that was just the way the (poorly written, in my view) headline made it sound. Here is the full quote:

"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."

Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-gamers-comfortable-with-not-owning-their-games

In context, he was drawing a comparison with the video and music markets when it comes to subscription services, and making the opposite point: i.e. game subscription services will not become popular until gamers are comfortable not owning their games.

Small edit, taking Disney put the equation, its $49 million not $70 million due to Platform holder’s 30% standard.

Also just following industry’s advice. Don’t like it don’t buy it.

Seriously, Disney has butchered Star Wars Ip. Its relevance is also dead now

Just waiting for a fire sale. Then I might buy it.

@J_e_f_f__D "By all means panda to a certain audience"

• pander

Panda is the cuddly bear thing.

This game was such a financial failure that if concord didn't exist this game would be taking all its news outside of the license fee for this product the marketing budget was there most costly with some putting it at 100 million if true add the production cost and this is likely one of those 300 million budget games 😅

Waiting for a deep discount. I don't really buy games a full price anymore. My backlog is so big I don't mind waiting a few months

At the end of the day, it was just a product that didn't appeal to enough customers.

@Ainu20 don't forget the easy availability of getting the game through Ubi+ on PC and Xbox meaning that actual potential full price buyers of the game are just renting it for £$€15. I doubt Ubi+ will survive the shareholders investigations, and hopefully it's the begining of the end for all "day one" subscriptions, the blight on gaming that they are.

I love Star Wars, and I am a woman. But honestly, I just feel there’s so much of it lately I feel rather burnt out. Like, I was excited for Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor. I didn’t keep up with any news for this game really, and I haven’t even finished Bad Batch. Plus I don’t even own a PS5. But that’s just how I feel about it, I just didn’t feel any need to see what this game was about.

I'd still like to play it, but I just rarely buy games at launch. It's not necessarily because I know it will go on sale, it's just $70 is a lot for a game, period. (Even if it's totally fair in terms of economics)

I can't put my finger on why Outlaws didn't breakout more. Certainly some fans were off put by the female protagonist, some people might have decided to wait, some people lost interest from the good-not-great reviews. I think it's many little things.

I hope Ubisoft turns it around and Outlaws is a success for them. As much flak as they get, the industry would be worse off if they got gobbled up by someone else.

@StrickenBiged thanks for this. People are so quick to pass judgement that a misleading title is all it takes to fool them.

@jrt87 hahaha. Ok, so you get that reviews are for people who haven't actually played the game, right? No one can judge the game and see if they, personally, like it than each individual playing it themselves.

If I try to drown out Kathleen Kennedys screeching of "the force is female" and close my eyes to Ubis usual design by committee/checklist approach to games.

Then for me it was a mix of different impressions like:

• The main protaganist looked boring with the personality of wet paper
• Only surface level interactions with the world around you
• Janky combat/gunplay
• Stealth that looked as fun as an appointment at the dentist
• Nothing about it seemed related to the title Outlaws. Too safe and "Disney"

These are just my impressions, so take them as such. It might've (is that a word lol? I blame the Norwegian school system 😅) been an amazing game to actual play. The vistas DID look cool, I'll give them that. 😃

@naruball I never really understood the whole obsession people have with needing to follow reviews to buy a game. I mean, sure, if a game is horribly buggy and unplayable, or has really awful controls, then yes, reviews are fine. But I’d rather get a game I like and try it myself. Hell, I’ve actually enjoyed some buggy, poorly reviewed games and enjoyed them.

@jrt87 Thank you, I manage to pre-order one controller around 10. Never would’ve realised without your comment. Can’t wait for November (Off-Topic I know).

I’m playing the game at the moment and while it’s not bad, it’s also not great?

Something I don’t see mentioned a lot in its criticisms is how bad the level design is.

Any game with the word Ubisoft on it makes me hesitate to buy it, based on poor past experiences with buying and playing their games.After watching gameplay, Outlaws looks buggy and unpolished. Definitely not worth the price tag. I will wait for it to appear in sales.

Ill definitely be buying it but i know better with Ubisoft games. Ill wait till around Christmas when i have time to play also. And usually the Ubisoft games are decent 3-4 months after release. And i can get it on sale usually.

@Ainu20 "The bigots hate her because she's a woman!"

@LifeGirl The standard lower paid devs are the ones who will suffer for this, not the millionaire shareholders. Nothing to celebrate about a company struggling or doing badly.

I kept help but wonder if people are just sick of Star Wars.

Disney is relentless with the brand, and much like Marvel the average consumer doesn't look at Star Wars and think 'oh sweet Srar Wars!"

It is a shame how it's being perceived as a total failure when the game itself is quite enjoyable. Yes, it's a mess from a technical perspective in certain ways (especially the resolution in Performance mode), but I've been playing it since the early release and I've been enjoying it.

It probably should've been delayed to try to optimize the Performance mode better so it would be better than 1080p, but it's still worth playing for people whenever they'd get around to it.

@OneWingedAngel Just throwing it out there Mickey Mouse and Friends and Winnie the Pooh (British but owned by Disney since 1961) are the largest most recognized IP, at least by revenue, in the U.S.

@RudeAnimat0r too many games and now with subscription services, too many backlogs. To sell at launch it needs hype. Outlaws release was near Black Myth Wukong, Astrobot, and Warhammer, all of which had more hype. It also competes for sales with perennial time sink games. Industry is going through a major change right now.