Ubisoft is gearing up for the release of Star Wars Outlaws and recently released a ten-minute gameplay video. However, responses to the video were mixed at best. Despite this, Ubisoft has confirmed that there will be no Star Wars Outlaws delay and the game will release on August 30 as planned.
The footage, revealed by IGN, shows protagonist Kay Vass making her way through a mission in the game. Making her way through a dead Sarlacc to get a pristine Sarlacc tooth, Kay is ambushed and her prize stolen. She chases after the thief and retrieves the tooth she needs to pay the Jawas to install a turret on her ship.
The reaction across several different platforms has been critical of both the graphics and the gameplay. The negative sentiment about the graphics has been so bad that IGN has pinned a comment on YouTube advising views to ensure the video is playing in high quality rather than defaulting to 420p.
However, even after issuing this warning, people remain largely unimpressed. “My video settings say ‘quality,’ so it must be something else…” said one skeptical viewer. “So we’re gonna ignore the frame drops and San Andreas-like explosions?” queries another. Another user cut straight to the point: “Looks like an alpha version that needs at least a year to be polished.”
As well as the graphics, people are skeptical about the gameplay itself. “Very wrong for them to showcase a fetch quest,” said one user. One on a Reddit thread discussing the video said “That was holy.. painstakingly awful, the sequence of events. meme quality.” Another user was concerned about what this choice of preview says about the rest of the game, “This looks so dull. Can’t believe this is the 10 minutes they chose to market their game…how boring and slow is the rest of it??”
Will there be a Star Wars Outlaws delay? Ubisoft responds to the criticism
The backlash was so bad it made it to Ubisoft via a Bank of America analyst, who raised the issue during a conference Q&A call. The analyst asked if the response would trigger the studio to delay the release of the game, but chief financial officer Frederick Duguet had a firm response: “The game has gone gold, so the date is well confirmed for August 30.”
He added, “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.”
The CEO, Yves Guillemot, also chimed in: “As we’ve said also for Star Wars, the level of quality of the world and the experience is really very high. We are really leveraging our engine, and I think people will love it.”
Star Wars Outlaws will be released on August 30.
