Source: AFP
After more than four years in the making, French video game designer Ubisoft on Friday released the long-awaited “Star Wars Outlaws,” an exciting spinoff from the famous saga.
The group’s first foray into the universe created by George Lucas, Outlaws is an open-world adventure featuring Kay Vess, a young outlaw who travels the galaxy far and wide to pull off the heist of the century.
“This project is a childhood dream for many of us,” studio creative director Julian Gerrity told AFP.
The game created by Sweden-based Massive Entertainment allows players to explore cities and space stations on a fictional planet that belies the sci-fi epic.
While “Outlaws” isn’t the first Star Wars-themed game, Gerighty says his teams were able to design dense cities and highly realistic ships thanks to the advent of state-of-the-art, powerful consoles.
Read also
A New Hope? France’s Ubisoft is contributing to the new ‘Star Wars’ game.
“We created new planets, new moons and characters that enter this universe,” Gerighty said.
“Outlaws” is the product of a partnership with LucasFilms, the video game arm of the Disney-owned franchise.
Its creators had access to the entertainment giant’s “exclusive library of all Star Wars details and design documents” — key to rendering an authentic atmosphere.
A Jedi-less odyssey
However, fans shouldn’t expect Jedis — members of the epic’s mystical knightly order. Rather, “Outlaws” brings the underworld of the galaxy to the fore.
The world features iconic characters and legendary locations, set on the planet Tatooine, where the original hero Luke Skywalker was born.
Source: AFP
The “incredibly ambitious” project is sandwiched between the events of “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” Gerighty said.
Read also
In Germany’s industrial east, old wounds are fueling the far right
Some of the adventure’s protagonists could appear in other productions, he added, as Disney in recent years has ramped up spinoffs from the franchise.
“Outlaws” will be the first Star Wars game to be developed by a publisher other than Electronic Arts (EA), after an exclusivity contract between the brand and the US company expired in 2021.
Some early access players have reported some bugs, which the developers have committed to fixing.
“A multitude of customizations”
EA has released several titles since 2013, from the multiplayer shooter “Star Wars Battlefront” to the laser sword battle “Jedi: Fallen Order” and “Jedi Survivor.”
“Those games were mainstream hits,” said Mat Piscatella, an analyst at industry tracker Circana, who says Disney ended its deal with EA to “maximize” revenue from the franchise.
The latest Star Wars video games have all ranked among the top 10 best-sellers in the U.S., according to Piscatella’s data — the likely trajectory for “Outlaws.”
Read also
Japan is the next level for retro game collectors
“There have been a plethora of adaptations” since the late 1970s, said Thibaut Claudel, the author of “Star Wars – Disney and the legacy of George Lucas.”
“As a businessman and an artist, George Lucas has always been interested in gaming,” which explains the “crazy range” of games in the early 2000s when the second trilogy came out, Claudel said.
“It’s a lot of pressure on creators,” he added, noting that die-hard fans analyze every new release.
Once the “Outlaws” frenzy dies down, pundits will turn their attention to “Star Wars Eclipse,” a space epic from French studios Quantic Dream, which has yet to announce a release date.
Source: AFP
