Star Wars Outlaws Gets More Bad Sales News

Summary

• Star Wars Outlaws is underperforming compared to 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
• Ubisoft's stock prices declined significantly following Star Wars Outlaws' August 2024 launch.
• Negative player feedback regarding combat and stealth mechanics contributed to the game's poor reception.

Adding to the challenges faced by Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft's open-world title is reportedly being outsold by 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Despite initially positive reviews upon its August 2024 release, player dissatisfaction with the combat and stealth mechanics significantly impacted its performance. While Ubisoft addressed these issues through updates, they proved insufficient to reverse the negative trend.

This underwhelming performance resulted in disappointing sales, falling short of Ubisoft's expectations, as acknowledged by the company in September. The game's underperformance, coupled with the subsequent sharp drop in Ubisoft's stock price shortly after the August 27, 2024 launch, fueled concerns about the publisher's future and sparked discussions about a potential privatization. However, Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment remain optimistic about the game's long-term prospects, pinning their hopes on planned post-launch DLC.

Further dampening this optimism, a report by VGC and former GamesIndustry.biz journalist Christopher Dring revealed that Star Wars Outlaws is not only underperforming but is also being outsold by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Although precise sales figures remain undisclosed, Respawn Entertainment's single-player action sequel has evidently surpassed Star Wars Outlaws in sales. In Europe, Star Wars Outlaws recently ranked 47th in 2024's best-selling video games.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Superior Performance

Several factors likely contribute to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's success over Star Wars Outlaws. Jedi: Survivor benefits from being a highly anticipated sequel to the successful Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its April 2023 release. Furthermore, EA and Respawn's subsequent PS4 and Xbox One update last year rekindled interest in Cal Kestis's adventure.

Conversely, Outlaws has struggled to gain traction, despite ongoing updates and story DLC from Massive Entertainment. The first expansion, Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card, released in November, introduced Kay Vess and Lando Calrissian. A second DLC, Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate's Fortune, is slated for Spring 2025 and will feature the return of the popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars character, Hondo Ohnaka.