Star Wars Outlaws: Trailer, Release Date, & More

Star Wars Outlaws, Massive Entertainment’s upcoming open-world game set in a galaxy far, far away, is set to release later this year after being announced during gamer Christmas last year. The game doesn’t follow Jedi and deal with The Force, but instead will give us a look into the seedier side of life in the Star Wars universe as it follows the exploits of a smuggler and scoundrel in an open-world format encompassing multiple planets.

As we near release and get more of a glimpse into what to expect when we get put into the shoes of new hero Kay Vess, let’s take a look at everything we know so far about Star Wars Outlaws.

Latest Star Wars Outlaws News

• April 10, 2024: New Star Wars Outlaws Trailer Reveals What The Game’s Actually About
  • The new Star Wars game finally has a release date in August, and we’ve got our first look at the game in action.
• April 10, 2024: All The Cool Stuff We Spotted In The Star Wars Outlaws Story Trailer
  • This is literally just an excuse to point at all the cool Star Wars stuff in the new Outlaws trailer. Join us.
• March 27, 2024: Star Wars Outlaws Has Been Rated In Australia
  • The game has been rated in Australia, and while some suggest a release date could be imminent, we’re a little more hesitant.
• January 3, 2024: Ubisoft Swiftly Corrects Star Wars Outlaws ‘Late 2024’ Release Window
  • After a Disney Parks blog seemed to suggest a “late 2024” launch, Ubisoft has corrected this to the more broad 2024 release window.
• December 27, 2023: Star Wars Outlaws Could Finally Be The Scoundrel Sim You’ve Been Dreaming Of
• July 24, 2023: Star Wars Outlaws Creative Director May Have Just Teased A Cooking System
  • We’re so ready for “alien concoctions” in game, whatever that means.
• June 13, 2023: Star Wars Outlaws: All The Details We Spotted In Ubisoft’s Ambitious Open-World Game
  • Here’s everything we spotted in the official reveal trailer for Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s open-world Star Wars game.
• June 13, 2023: What You’ll Actually Do In Ubisoft’s Impressive Open-World Star Wars Game
  • An impressive ten-minute trailer for Star Wars Outlaws closed out the June 2023 edition of the Ubisoft Forward showcase, and it kind of rocks.
• June 12, 2023: Ubisoft’s Open-World Star Wars Game Looks Incredible In First Trailer
  • Ubisoft Massive gave fans the first look at its upcoming Lucasfilm collab, Star Wars Outlaws. Only a cinematic for now, but a strong teaser.

Star Wars Outlaws: Release Date

We finally have a release date for the new Star Wars game off the back of the new trailer – Star Wars Outlaws will launch on August 30, 2024.

Star Wars Outlaws: Trailer

We’ve seen two trailers for Massive Entertainment’s open world Star Wars game so far, with the world premiere trailer dropped during the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, and a brand spanking new story trailer released in April. You can check them both out below:

Star Wars Outlaws: Platforms

Star Wars Outlaws is set to release on Xbox Series X|S consoles, PlayStation 5, Amazon Luna, and PC via the Ubisoft launcher when it drops in August.

Star Wars Outlaws: Story

The new Star Wars game follows “emerging scoundrel” Kay Vess and her Merqaal (aka: the cutest axolotl-like creature ever), companion Nix . As one of many trying to get by as the Empire’s power grows, one of Kay’s jobs puts her in the Empire’s line of fire, leading her and Nix to attempt what Ubisoft has called “one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen,” to secure their freedom. Specifically, the duo must take all of criminal kingpin Sliro’s (head of new criminal outfit Zarak Besh) money, and do it before Sliro himself cuts Kay down. Kay and Nix must “fight, steal, and outwit their way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.” Based on the story trailer, it looks like we’re in for an adventure through plenty of wretched hives of scum and villainy.

Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty says Kay’s story is a “little bit more relatable” exploration of a scoundrel’s adventure (think Han Solo). “More of a rookie, a petty thief, who ends up in a situation that’s much bigger than they every expected,” he said in an interview with Edge Magazine, “This little fish in a *colossal* pond, dealing with sharks and barracudas.”

When does Star Wars Outlaws take place in the Star Wars timeline?

Outlaws is set in the year between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi in a time when “the underworld is thriving,” according to Gerighty. This is during the height of the Empire’s reign, and that’s why Kay is constantly on the run. Her illegal activities have caught the Empire’s eye, and Luke Skywalker and friends have yet to take them down. According to Narrative Director Navid Khavari, the team wanted to explore the ground-level impact of Star Wars’ intergalactic conflicts.

“We always knew we wanted to create an original scoundrel story,” Khavari told Kotaku. “There was something exciting about looking at [this universe] from the perspective of a scoundrel like Kay, who has no experience with the Empire, Jedi, Rebellion or the Sith.”

Star Wars Outlaws: Gameplay

Star Wars Outlaws looks like a Ubisoft game in more ways than one. Yes, it has the open-world structure that’s become synonymous with the company, but it also has stealth action elements like sneaking, parkour, and stealth attacks reminiscent of the Assassin’s Creed series. There’s also some cover shooter elements, and hand-to-hand combat, and you can manipulate the environment by sending Nix to hit switches and pick up items across the battlefield.

In addition to on-foot combat, the new Star Wars game has vehicle combat, too, with last year’s Ubisoft Forward showing Kay firing her blaster while on a speeder bike, slowing down time to line up her shots.

Kay’s blaster seems to have different settings and modifications that change its function. The ones seen in the demonstration included a stun mode and a “focused” mode, which appear to work better on certain enemies or obstacles. The focused setting helps apply pressure on shielded enemies, allowing Kay to get in close for a melee finisher.

Wanted system

Part of being a wanted criminal is being on the run. Star Wars Outlaws has a reputation and wanted system similar to that in Grand Theft Auto, which means if you’re caught doing crimes, you might find yourself on the wrong side of an imperial blaster. Your reputation with different factions will affect how easily you can access certain areas, so while you’re bound to make some enemies on your way through space, it will be important to keep in mind who hates you the least while traveling.

Space Travel

Kay’s adventure spans the galaxy, and she can fly around it in her Trailblazer starship. From space, she can fly to different destinations and take part in some space combat against the Empire’s forces. You can also jump to lightspeed while in space to escape Imperial forces and cool down your wanted meter.

Dialogue choices

As seen in the demonstration video, Star Wars Outlaws features dialogue choices that let you color in the lines of who Kay is. The example shown is Kay deciding whether or not to bribe an Empire lackey. According to Massive, these choices won’t result in a branching storyline, but will let you add a tenor to Kay’s personality and scheming.

Star Wars Outlaws: Locations and Open World Map Size

It’s been made pretty clear that Star Wars Outlaws will be an open-world game, but Gerighty has confirmed that the adventure takes a more “handcrafted” and “manageable” approach to this – in opposition to the often overwhelming procedurally generated galactic adventures seen in recent games such as Starfield. There’s not yet concrete confirmation on how many planets will be features in the game, but the director believes the planets “could be [equivalent to] two to three zones” in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in what he calls a “crude analogy.”

When it comes to building out the world of Star Wars for open-world exploration, Gerighty says Outlaws will stick with the 80/20 rule Lucasfilms employs in location design – that is, 80% familiar to the average person, 20% alien. Giving an example of designing the Outlaws version of Tatooine using this approach, Gerighty says southeast African biomes served as an inspiration, but with a “twist on it to make it feel a little bit alien” with recognisable architecture, “but two suns.” He describes the design of the planet overall as “familiar but fresh,” something we can likely expect from any reimaginings of iconic Star Wars locations in-game.

Speaking of recognisable locations from the franchise making their way into Star Wars Outlaws, while the game takes place in the original trilogy’s window, Kay will visit planets from multiple eras of the series’ history. We’ve already seen Kijimi, a planet introduced in The Rise of Skywalker, and the gambling city of Canto Bight from The Last Jedi.

Star Wars Outlaws: Review

Given the game is still over four months off release, we don’t have a review just yet – but watch this space for more info about any reviews or previews as we near August 30.