Star Wars Outlaws is billed as the franchise’s first-ever open-world game. From the makers of The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Outlaws tells a scoundrel story that explores the depths of Star Wars’ underworld between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
In anticipation of Ubisoft’s big Star Wars game, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Star Wars Outlaws.
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Star Wars Outlaws Trailer
Ubisoft has released two official trailers for Star Wars Outlaws. The most substantial of which is a 10-minute gameplay trailer revealed last June. Check it out below:
Star Wars Outlaws Release Window
Star Wars Outlaws has an official release window of 2024. It will be released sometime between April and December 2024, according to Ubisoft’s most recent earnings report.
Star Wars Outlaws Platforms and Price
Star Wars Outlaws will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Ubisoft Connect). Ubisoft has not announced a price for Outlaws, though $70 is a safe assumption considering its scope and Ubisoft’s pricing for recent AAA games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Star Wars Outlaws Story
Plot and Characters
Star Wars Outlaws tells the story of Kay Vess and her axolotl-like companion Nix attempting “one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen.” It’s a scoundrel story that aims to emulate the adventures of Han Solo or Jack Sparrow while being “a little bit more relatable,” according to creative director Julian Gerighty. “More of a rookie, a petty thief, who ends up in a situation that’s much bigger than they ever expected,” he said.
Here’s the official synopsis from Disney and Ubisoft:
“Experience the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Explore distinct planets across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, an emerging scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.
“If you’re willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity.”
The decision was made to set Outlaws between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (the second and third films in the original trilogy) because it’s a time when “the underworld is thriving.” Gerighty explained: “When we were starting off the discussions with Lucasfilm, it was very clear that the one-year period between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, that’s where the Rebels aren’t part of the picture. The Empire’s taking more and more control, but the syndicates, they’re taking more power, they’re exploiting all of these weaknesses. So it really is a moment where the underworld is thriving and there’s no better situation for an established or a rookie scoundrel to cut their teeth than this particular moment.”
Kay Vess is voiced by Humberly González (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Ginny & Georgia). Her alien companion Nix is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker (Star Wars: The Bad Batch, American Dad). The full cast has not been revealed, though we know Outlaws will include characters both new and old. Among the old is Jabba the Hutt, who Massive confirmed will assign Kay missions from his palace on Tatooine. Among the new is the battle droid ND-5 (voiced by Jay Rincon), who fought in the Clone Wars before taking up a life in the underworld.
Locations and Map Size
Star Wars Outlaws’ open world is spread across multiple “handcrafted” planets of “manageable” sizes. The planets (final number TBA) “could be [equivalent to] two to three zones” in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, according to Gerighty. As the director noted, this is a “crude analogy” as the regions of Odyssey’s Greece range in size, though it should be taken to mean the planets will not be near-endless areas filled with procedurally generated content.
The planets in Outlaws will adhere to Lucasfilm’s “80/20” rule of location design: 80% familiar, 20% alien or fantastical. Gerighty explained how Massive designed its version of Tatooine around this philosophy: “We start off with a biome, in this case, southeast African biomes as an inspiration, and then you put a twist on it to make it feel a little bit alien. If you think of the first shots, maybe not the first shots, but the first the shots of Tatooine. Beautiful, recognizable architecture, but two suns. For us, it’s having this huge mountain, and carved into it into the amberine of the mountain, the crystalline substance is a city, and these outcroppings of orange, very reflective material. That’s what brings the really alien nature to it. Familiar but fresh.”
Despite Massive’s dose of originality, Tatooine in Outlaws will be informed by the rich history of Star Wars films. “If you close your eyes and give people a choice to go anywhere in Tatooine?” Gerighty said. “Mos Eisley. And specifically one watering hole in Mos Eisley. The opportunity is that you can see all the nooks and crannies. This concept of virtual tourism is important to us. If you’ve ever wondered the distances from the moisture farms to the cantina? We have an experience for you.”
Another location Massive has detailed is the previously unexplored moon Toshara. Inspired by East African savannas, Toshara is home to “lots of wide, open plains” — a perfect playground for Kay’s speeder. It’s described as a “hive of scum and villainy” where players can explore the scoundrel lifestyle.
Other locations glimpsed in trailers include Kijimi, home to a hive-mind syndicate based on the Medlitto species called the Ashiga Clan; the humid jungle planet of Akiva; and Cantonica, home to the infamous casino city Canto Bight.
Game Length
While Ubisoft has not revealed how long it’ll take to complete Star Wars Outlaws, two key developers have commented on their desire to avoid making it “too big” — a common criticism for recent Ubisoft open-world games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. “Too big,” according to Gerighty and narrative director Navid Khavari, “is a game that people don’t manage to play, enjoy, and finish.”
Gerighty added: “Our objective is to really get people into a very dense, rich adventure, open world adventure that they can explore at their own rhythm. So it is absolutely not a 200- or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG. This is a very focused action-adventure RPG that will take people on a ride and is very manageable.”
Star Wars Outlaws Gameplay
Combat
Star Wars Outlaws is played from a third-person perspective. On the ground, players can expect hand-to-hand combat, gunplay, and stealth sequences. While aboard your ship, The Trailblazer, Outlaws provides opportunities for intimate dogfights with TIE fighters and larger-scale battles against massive vessels. More on space combat below.
As for your companion, Nix appears able to distract enemies, retrieve weapons, press buttons/pull switches, and attack guards by pressing RB/R1 and highlighting the desired action.
Exploration and Traversal
The open world of Star Wars Outlaws will be traversed on foot, atop your speeder, and aboard your ship. One of the most impressive things we’ve seen from Outlaws is the seamless nature in which you’ll be able to move across these three modes of traversal; Kay can go from foot to speeder to space without any cuts to black or obvious loading screens.
The planets of Outlaws can be navigated most efficiently using Kay’s speeder, which the dev team describes as “motocross in the sense of making the travel really fun, thrilling, full of tricks, speed chases, that type of thing.” As evidenced in the gameplay trailer, you’ll be able to shoot while riding using a slow-motion targeting system reminiscent of Red Dead’s Dead Eye.
There also appears to be some on-foot platforming, as we’ve seen Kay climb atop boxes and rappel down ropes using her grappling hook.
As for how Ubisoft has designed the open world to be explored, Khavari said the goal is to “make sure that the player organizes their experience according to their desires.” The team wants to avoid the Ubisoft open-world critique of maps crowded with icons that lead to repetitive activities. The goal here is to create worlds “so dense and so rich with different distractions that we won’t have to rely on so many UI indications for them,” he said.
Spaceship Combat
While aboard the Trailblazer, Kay will get into dogfights with hostile spacecraft. Dogfighting is made “as accessible as possible because movement in a whole full-on 360-degree environment is quite challenging,” said Gerighty. Massive hopes to accomplish this by slowing down the pace of dogfights and providing players with a chase cam control that allows enemy ships to be chased automatically so you can focus solely on aiming your shots.
In addition to being a vessel for space exploration and deep-space combat, the Trailblazer serves as a sort of home base for Kay. While roaming the ship on foot, you’ll be able to speak with other characters and explore the mysteries of the ship’s history.
Reputation Systems
There are two important systems around player behavior in Star Wars Outlaws: Reputation and Wanted. Massive says these two systems will be at play within every location, as they designed each with consideration for the presence of the Empire and the various crime Syndicates.
The Reputation system applies to Kay’s relationships with Syndicates. If Kay fosters trust with Syndicates, she can expect better contracts, cheaper store prices, and access to new territories. Should she fall out of favor with one, she can expect to be hunted. “It’s all about playing the Syndicates off one another, making choices, dilemmas in terms of how you hand in a quest, that type of thing,” said Gerighty.
The Wanted system, meanwhile, pertains to Kay’s relationship with the Empire. The Empire will put the Wanted tag on Kay when she acts against their wishes. In one example, we see Kay refuse to pay a bribe to an Imperial officer, resulting in a high-speed chase that follows the fugitive from land to space.
RPG Elements
Outlaws features some light RPG elements, such as an upgrade system that allows you to bolster Kay’s gear, from improvements to her speeder bike to new modules for her blaster. There will also be customization options for Kay’s speeder and spaceship.
There will be dialogue choices to make as Kay. This system was implemented to enhance the experience of role-playing as a scoundrel in the world of Star Wars, Gerighty told IGN.
Star Wars Outlaws Development
Development of Star Wars Outlaws is led by Massive Entertainment, the Ubisoft-owned studio responsible for The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Massive is supported by Ubisoft Annecy, Bucharest, Chengdu, Milan, Montpellier, Paris, Shanghai, Toronto, Redlynx, and Stockholm. It’s being developed using Massive’s in-house Snowdrop game engine.
Outlaws was announced in early 2021, signaling the end of EA’s exclusive hold on the Star Wars video game license, before being properly revealed at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase. According to Disney’s Sean Shoptaw, the inception of Massive’s Star Wars game came during a meeting between the two companies to discuss Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Key developers include game director Mathias Karlson (The Division 2), creative director Julian Gerighty (The Division 2), narrative director Navid Khavari (Far Cry 6), art and world director Benedikt Podlesniggand (The Division 2), and lead writer Nikki Foy (Far Cry 6).
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.