Forget Starfield, Star Wars Outlaws promises to hold the first open galaxy

When it comes to promises in the video game industry, we can often be let down by pre-release hype that promises the world which in reality, slaps us in the face with the wet kipper of disappointment.

Sadly, it’s not uncommon for publishers and developers to mislead their potential customers with the promise of gorgeous visuals, immersive worlds and content that will keep us entertained for years. It’s why gamers rightly frown upon cinematic reveals or in-game footage powered by UE5, which can often give us a false perception of what the game is actually like.

ICYMI: Check out our chat with the Star Wars Outlaws devs below!

Take, for example, Ubisoft’s reveals of Watch Dogs and The Division in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Both of these E3 reveals looked quite different from the final released product but at least for the most part, it feels like those days are becoming slightly fewer and far between.

Speaking of Ubisoft, it’s once again made a bold promise that hopefully this time, it will be able to keep with the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws developed by Mass Entertainment, the studio behind The Division 2. If the recent claims by Massive Entertainment are anything to go by, it could be time for Starfield to move over.

During the various gameplay reveals that we’ve seen for Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft likes to emphasise the sense of adventure, with the players seemingly free to explore the game's galaxy. One feature that has caught my eye is when flying in and out of planets, there is no visible loading screen, much like No Man’s Sky and unlike Starfield.

Creating an open-world game comes with a host of developmental challenges that a linear game may not present, but when a game such as Star Wars Outlaws promises an open galaxy bigger than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it raises the stakes to the next level. Ubisoft and Lucasfilm claim that Star Wars Outlaws will be the first true open-world Star Wars game or perhaps to be more accurate, an open-galaxy.

“I think it's taken this long to get an open-world Star Wars game because of how, excuse the pun, massive it is to build a game like this. There are only so many studios in the world who build games of this scale,” Steve Blank, director of franchise content and strategy at Lucasfilm, told IGN.

“It's the outlaw player fantasy and it's open world, those were the two main pillars that we pitched,” explains Julian Gerighty, creative director at Massive Entertainment. “Why open world? Because the outlaw fantasy really needs that to live and breathe.”

The creative director, Mathias Karlson adds, “It's a combination of our DNA as a studio, our background, when we think, ‘Okay, what do we have a lot of experience doing? What do we think we're good at?’ And this fantasy, this scoundrel in Star Wars begs for freedom.”

It all sounds very exciting and I can’t wait to see if promises are kept next month. Star Wars Outlaws will be released for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 30 August 2024.