Ubisoft Blames ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Failure On Brand Being In “Choppy Waters”, New Report Claims Sequel Cancelled “Very, Very Early” In Development
A new report claims that Ubisoft may have hit the brakes on development for a Star Wars Outlaws sequel. This comes fresh off the comments made by the company CEO, who placed the blame on the franchise being in “choppy waters” in an attempt to justify the game’s poor sales.
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The news comes from Insider Gaming editor-in-chief Tom Henderson, who claimed that plans for a Star Wars Outlaws sequel were cancelled early in development during a recent episode of the Insider Gaming podcast.
After discussing Ubisoft turning to the Unreal 5 engine and cancelling a small Far Cry game, Henderson segued, “Leaping back to the Star Wars thing and cancellations — again, I am working on a book about cancelled video games, but these don’t really have big stories behind them — they also recently cancelled Star Wars Outlaws 2.”
“Because that was planned and in the works, but it wasn’t that it didn’t enter production,” Henderson admitted, adding, “It was very, very early, but they looked at Outlaws 2 and thought ‘yeah, let’s not do that.'” He agreed with the outlet’s Senior Editor that the game was likely seven years away from launching even if it had proceeded.
Earlier in the podcast Henderson proposed that Ubisoft were trying to shape themselves up to have a stronger 2026 and have “a very good pipeline of games in the works, it’s just that they’re not there yet.” He also believes they are trying to shirk their reputation as a “trend-chaser” and their recent games feeling and looking similar.
Per Insider Gaming’s name, Henderson has access to numerous inside sources, such as Ubisoft employees being unhappy with the “Transformation Committee” designed to fix the mess they put themselves in.
The claim comes on the back of the comments made by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who admitted, “For Star Wars Outlaws, we didn’t reach our sales targets,” during a recent shareholder Q&A, as transcribed by Insider Gaming.
“The game suffered from a number of items,” he added, further elaborating, “First, it suffered from the fact that it was released at a time when the brand, the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters. And the game had a few items that still needed to be polished, and they were polished and debugged in the early weeks, but it did affect sales volumes.”
“We did heavily improve the game by troubleshooting and debugging, and when it will be released on upcoming consoles, such as the Switch 2, it will be the new version of the game,” Guillemot insisted.
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The “choppy waters” comment is likely alluding to several bombs in all things Star Wars. The less said about the new Star Wars film trilogy the better, not to mention TV series Andor and Ahsoka, scaring off audiences from recent media that did better. Even Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy denied she is retiring, all the while she looks for her potential successor.
Star Wars Outlaws also joined the ranks of being loved by critics, and barely tolerated by audiences. On the other hand, Star Wars Battlefront II, an eight year old game, saw a resurgence this year. Nor has the franchise supposed reputation scared off EA or Epic Games from making new games or crossover content.
No matter what is Ubisoft’s reasoning for feeling Star Wars Outlaws failed, we’re not likely to see further adventures of Kay Vess if the recent report is to be believed.
