‘Star Wars Outlaws’: Disney Tests Gamers’ Appetite for Hollywood IP

Ubisoft’s “Star Wars Outlaws” is the latest high-profile AAA game based on one of Hollywood’s biggest cash cows — and the next effort to mend Disney’s troubled presence in video games.

Releasing Aug. 30, “Outlaws” is the first “Star Wars” title to come from a big console publisher after EA’s 10-year rights deal for “Star Wars” ended. Developed by Massive Entertainment, the game is set in an open world, much like top-shelf Ubisoft franchises “Assassin’s Creed,” “Far Cry” and “The Division.”

Massive last developed 2023’s open-world “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora,” based on the record-breaking film franchise at Disney. Reviews didn’t skew negative, but the game was sold for 40% off on Steam just 12 days after its December release, indicating subpar sales that have yet to be disclosed by Ubisoft. 

Critics’ reviews for “Outlaws” aren’t faring much better, but its “Star Wars” affiliation means the game has a lot more going for it. Even if sales for Massive’s “Avatar” game didn’t match the heft of its namesake films, “Star Wars” is more established in the gaming space, with dozens of titles dating back decades. 

Three of 2023’s top 10 bestselling games in the U.S. came from Hollywood IP, most notably Warner Bros. Discovery’s open-world “Hogwarts Legacy,” which outsold the newest annual “Call of Duty” game. Since 2009, only Rockstar’s open-world hits “Grand Theft Auto 5” and “Red Dead Redemption 2” managed to outsell an annual “Call of Duty” title.  

After January’s “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” soured WBD’s high from “Hogwarts,” amounting to a $200 million loss for the conglomerate’s gaming arm, “Star Wars Outlaws” is hitting a gaming market that is bound to be wary of Hollywood IP once again, especially when “Star Wars” has had a messy presence in the space over the last decade. 

That’s because a highly anticipated remake of 2003 hit “Star Wars” game “Knights of the Old Republic” was delayed indefinitely in 2022, when it changed hands from Aspyr to Saber Interactive. Additionally, Quantic Dreams’ “Star Wars: Eclipse” recently lost its lead writer after years of no significant updates since the game’s 2021 reveal, casting its timeline further into the unknown. 

Amid the industry’s intense layoffs, M&A shifts and canceled titles, work on “Star Wars Outlaws” managed to be completed in a relatively short amount of time after being pitched in 2020. The game features a similar premise to “Uncharted” creator Amy Hennig’s “Star Wars” game for EA, dubbed “Ragtag,” that was nixed in 2019.  

“Outlaws” represents a big alternative for fans of the IP who have been stuck with multiple Disney+ series that varied widely in reception and popularity. “Star Wars” films have been on hiatus since 2019 and won’t be back until “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which is slated for 2026. 

Thankfully for “Outlaws,” EA’s “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” was the ninth-bestselling game of the year, sharing the spotlight with “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.” A follow-up to 2019’s “Fallen Order,” “Survivor” was received well by critics and gamers, but launch sales also increased over 30% from “Fallen Order,” per U.K. sales data, a sign of the hunger for more “Star Wars” games.  

The success of “Jedi” dissipated the cloud cast over EA’s chunk of the IP after the in-game spending model of 2017’s “Battlefront 2,” which involved loot boxes of items that gave players advantages in multiplayer when purchased, was heavily criticized.  

When done right, games constructed around open, explorable maps can still prove highly popular, one aspect “Outlaws” has going for it. 

Another element working in the game’s favor is there likely won’t be more AAA “Star Wars” games for some time. While EA has another “Jedi” game in development, it canceled a planned first-person “Star Wars” shooter from the same studio alongside layoffs earlier in 2024, allowing Ubisoft to fill what will be a longer gap in major “Star Wars” games.  

“Outlaws” is at least skirting the mismatched live-service bet of “Suicide Squad” for an experience tailored more to single-player, RPG-style gameplay, raising its chances of resonance at a time when publishers have strained themselves to generate new live-service hits. Sony’s PlayStation is the latest victim of such pushes, as of the release of “Concord” last weekend, which saw few players. 

While “Outlaws” could still underwhelm, another Lucasfilm game is the next new hope for Disney in the space. Originally intended as an Xbox exclusive, “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” is now set to come to PlayStation in early 2025, after it first hits Xbox and PC this December, another step in the move away from console exclusivity. 

Even if that misses its mark, Disney’s $1.5 billion Fortnite deal is still in place and should bring in more revenue from in-game sales, now that Fortnite is making a slow return to iOS devices.  

But a real hit game from Disney IP that rivals the sales of “Hogwarts Legacy,” itself developed by a former Disney gaming studio, has yet to transpire.