We already know that Ubisoft considers Star Wars: Outlaws a commercial failure, describing sales as “softer than expected.” However, according to a new report the game may have sold even worse than was feared.
Writer Chris Dring wrote a piecefor VGC examining Ubisoft’s current troubles which have resulted in the company’s stock price tanking. In the piece, Chris Dring, a former GamesIndustry.biz journalist, claims that Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (which was released in 2023) actually sold better in 2024 than Star Wars: Outlaws did.
“Across Europe, the game was the 47th best-selling game of the year, and sold less than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which was released the year before.” wrote Dring.
It’s unclear whether Star Wars: Jedi Survivor outperformed Star Wars: Outlaws in dollar sales or units sold, but either way it’s fairly damning. You could certainly argue that in terms of units sold Star Wars: Jedi Survivor has received deep discounts that helped shift copies and also launched on last-gen machines in 2024, giving it a boost.
We also need to keep in mind that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was also on sale for the entirety of 2024, whereas Star Wars: Outlaws launched on August 27, giving it around 4 months on sale.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to get any real numbers to get a more accurate comparison. We know Star Wars: Outlaws sold around a million copies in its first month, but Ubisoft has remained quiet otherwise. We also don’t have any solid sales data for Jedi Survivor in 2024.
In other words, there’s a lot of context we’re missing to get the full picture. However, even without that context, it’s fairly damning to think that the shiny new Star Wars title on shelves was outsold by an older game from the same IP. Whether it was because are tiring of Ubisoft games, fed up of Star Wars or just weren’t captured by the trailers, the game clearly hasn’t done very well for Ubisoft.
Interestingly, though, Ubisoft is still working away on Outlaws, including re-working its divisive stealth elements and adding more content. It looks like they are hoping it can have a long tail, much like Jedi Survivor has benefited from.
When I played Star Wars: Outlaws I genuinely did have a good enough time with it, but in the end it was merely a decent game which isn’t enough in today’s competitive market. It’s another nail in Ubisoft’s already metal-laden coffin, which is why the company is busy launching new investigations and projects to figure out how to bail out the sinking ship. A lot of hope is resting on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which was just delayed again.