Star Wars Outlaws: Ubisoft blames the franchise for its sales failure

Ubisoft failed to meet its sales targets with Star Wars Outlaws, the highly anticipated open-world title based on the famous top-tier saga. The game, released in August 2024, sold just one million copies in its first month. For a big-budget production, that figure is far from what was expected.

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, directly blamed the Star Wars franchise. According to the executive, the brand is in a stage of declining popularity, which directly impacted the game's performance.

Star Wars in decline: a brand in crisis

The Star Wars saga is not going through its best moment. After the most recent trilogy, which created divisions among fans, subsequent productions failed to fully recover the public's enthusiasm. Series like The Mandalorian and Andor were well received, but other offerings did not achieve good results.

For Ubisoft, that loss of interest was directly reflected in the game's sales. Guillemot explained that Outlaws fell victim to the "instability of the brand" and acknowledged that the Star Wars context was not ideal for launching a title of this magnitude.

Sales below expectations

With a major investment behind it and the backing of a global franchise, Ubisoft expected a much greater impact. One million copies in 30 days was, for the company, a disappointing result.

The company's CEO stated that the loss of enthusiasm for the saga affected players' desire to join this new offering.

Technical errors and criticism at launch

In addition to the brand's low popularity, Star Wars Outlaws faced criticism for technical issues at launch. Although Ubisoft released patches to improve performance and stealth, the negative perception had already taken hold. Many players felt that the game hit the market without being fully ready.

This type of launch, according to analysts, generates distrust. The pressure to meet commercial deadlines ends up affecting the quality of the titles, and that impacts sales and the companies' reputations.

A second chance on new consoles?

Ubisoft is not giving up. The company plans to relaunch Outlaws on future platforms such as the Nintendo Switch 2. Still, the challenge will be significant: it will have to reverse the initial negative image and convince an audience that, in part, has already lost interest.