Star Wars Outlaws launched last week, and the open world action-adventure title seems to have got off to a worse start than Ubisoft was hoping for. Disappointing initial sales have reportedly caused a drop in stock prices for Ubisoft, while things haven’t been significantly better where its critical reception is concerned either. The game currently sits at an aggregate score of 76 on Metacritic after 81 reviews, and though that isn’t a terrible score by any means, it’s lower than many would have predicted- including the game’s own director.
Speaking in a recent interview with GamesRadar, creative director Julian Gerighty expressed his disappointment at the game’s Metacritic score. “I’m a little disappointed with the Metacritic,” he said. “Of course, recognition from press and critics is very important to us, but players are really connecting with what we did.”
Gerighty went on to add that the development team as Massive Entertainment feels a “level of pride, happiness, and sense of accomplishment” in spite of the mixed reception the game has seen.
“It’s brought me so much joy to see the incredible images being captured and shared. And I think that’s proof positive that this is an experience like no other Star Wars experience before, that lets you step into this world and enjoy some virtual tourism,” he added.
Meanwhile, as you would imagine, Massive Entertainment plans on continuing to improve the game for some time to come. “This will be a game that millions of people are going to play for years and years, and we’re never going to stop improving it,” Gerighty said. “Well, that’s a lie. [Laughs] We’ll probably stop improving it, but today my mind is not on stopping improving it.”
In our review of Star Wars Outlaws, we gave it a score of 6/10, saying, “Star Wars Outlaws boasts strong open world design and the swashbuckling and improvisational vibe of a classic Star Wars scoundrel story, but from technical rough edges to some dated design decisions to clunky movement, it’s got more than a few significant issues that weigh it down.” Read the full review through here.
Star Wars Outlaws is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The game will receive two paid story expansions over the course of the coming months.
