New Open World Star Wars Game Coming From Ubisoft and Lucasfilm Games

[JD]

They've announced that Ubisoft Massive, the developer behind The Division series, is working on a new open world Star Wars game. I've been wanting a open world Star Wars game for a long time now, so I'm definitely very curious about this. Hopefully it's a single player game, or at least something you can play by yourself, I don't really like when the force you to play with other people.
I'm surprised this is coming from someone other than EA, I thought they had the exclusive license for Star Wars games.

 

[fireproof78]

Looks like the exclusive rights part has ended, though they still appear to have a contract going forward. Sounds like Lucasfilm is wanting to expand the gaming side now and looking at more developers to support that expansion.

 

[Skywalker]

Thank goodness. This is how it should have been from the start, but Disney has always been very poor when it comes to the video game aspect of franchising.

 

[fireproof78]

Thank goodness. This is how it should have been from the start, but Disney has always been very poor when it comes to the video game aspect of franchising.

I mean, Lucasarts was already halting projects so it can't all be thrown at Disney. Honestly, I have preferred the scaled back version because I can at least keep on current output rather than being constantly behind.

 

[JD]

I'd rather see them releasing fewer, better games, than just throwing out a constant stream of crap, with a few jewels in the shit.

 

[Reverend]

I mean, Lucasarts was already halting projects so it can't all be thrown at Disney. Honestly, I have preferred the scaled back version because I can at least keep on current output rather than being constantly behind.

I wouldn't exactly call two and a half-ish decent games and a bunch of dogshite paywalled mobile games in 8 years "scaled back" so much as "anaemic", especially when one of which EA had next to nothing to do with and another was pitch too EA by a contracted studio. And let's not forget the BFII launch fiasco.
Giving the exclusive rights to EA was disastrous as it created both a bottleneck and an unearned monopoly on Star Wars games. With multiple studios working in parallel and a sense of competition between them, we could easily have had three times that number of releases with MUCH more motivation to make them *good*.

 

[fireproof78]

I wouldn't exactly call two and a half-ish decent games and a bunch of dogshite paywalled mobile games in 8 years "scaled back" so much as "anaemic", especially when one of which EA had next to nothing to do with and another was pitch too EA by a contracted studio. And let's not forget the BFII launch fiasco.
Giving the exclusive rights to EA was disastrous as it created both a bottleneck and an unearned monopoly on Star Wars games. With multiple studios working in parallel and a sense of competition between them, we could easily have had three times that number of releases with MUCH more motivation to make them *good*.

Call it whatever you will. I doubt it will be good but I am hopeful.

 

[Tuskin38]

was pitch too EA by a contracted studio

If you mean Squadrons, EA owns Motive so they're not a contracted studio.

But the first part is correct, it was an independent pitch.

 

[JD]

IGN has some details about a job listing for the Star Wars game that Ubisoft posted. No mention of multiplay experience, which is a relief for me. It does mention experience with RPGs, progression and balancing, and non-linear storytelling. So this is making it sound like a Witcher, Assassin's Creed, or Horizon kind of thing, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

 

[Reverend]

If you mean Squadrons, EA owns Motive so they're not a contracted studio.

But the first part is correct, it was an independent pitch.

Point being; EA had to be told what a good Star Wars game looks like, after 6 or 7 years of making (mostly cancelling) Star Wars games.

 

[fireproof78]

No surprise that they had to be told.

 

[Jinn]

BTW, Star Wars Battlefront II (2017, not 2005) is currently available for free at the Epic Games store.

 

[JD]

StarWars.com has posted an interview with Douglas Reilly, the VP of Lucasfilm Games.
It sounds like there are more announcements coming over the course of the year. Now that they aren't just working with EA there are tons of possibilities for who they could work with and what kind of games we could get.
If they work with Insomniac or Naughty Dog, I'm going to lose my mind.

 

[Tuskin38]

If they work with Insomniac or Naughty Dog, I'm going to lose my mind.

Both are owned by Sony, which means if they did they'd most likely be PlayStation only since most of their games are.

I'd have to end up just watching the games on youtube or something.

 

[JD]

I always forget they're owned by Sony, I doubt they're going to want to limit their audience to the Playstation systems.

 

[Enterprise1701]

So this game is titled Star Wars Outlaws.

And we have a trailer for the Ubisoft game; Outlaws. All CG, no gameplay.

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Looks cool, and I like the setting . . . but this tells us nothing about the actual game. Indeed I think I recognised some of those digital assets from other projects, so I doubt this is even in-engine.

From a lore perspective; if we can take this at face value then it's obviously meant to take place smack in the middle between Empire & Jedi. Involves the underworld in general, and the Pykes specifically to some degree or another. The vibe is clearly "young Han Solo", but with an original character (Kay) who has a pet companion instead of a Wookiee. Interesting that Jaylen's buddy is a seemingly independent BC Commando Droid.
Not exactly blown away by the ship design though. Nothing wrong with it; star wars is full of flying bricks and rightly so. Just pretty non-descript for a hero ship. If only from a branding & marketing POV I would have expected something a little more distinctive.

And as promised, here's the gameplay demo.

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And some talking head stuff with the star.

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The livestream also had a separate breakdown/commentary of the footage with some of the senior devs, but they don't seem to have posted a video of that (yet.)

Overall; it looks good, but I'm always suspicious of these kinds of "vertical slice" demos. Obviously all pre-recorded, and everything runs a little too smooth, so it's likely staged or otherwise massaged to make it look better than it probably is. Performance issues on launch are almost a given, these days, and I would be surprised if this one (especially for being open world) is an exception.

Some random thoughts and lore observations: -

• Nix is a Merqaal. a rare & exotic creature who's homeworld is said to be "unknown" (we'll see if that's just fluff or if there's a story there too). Kay has had him most of her life, and so is more family than pet; indeed he sounds like the only family she has. Gameplay wise, he's used to indicate when something's off, or when there's an opportunity. He also has utility in both stealth and combat situations.
• Interestingly, they used what seems to be an actual puppeteer on the capture stage. I know Henson has been developing an advanced rig for real time digital puppeteering, but this is just a very basic hand-puppet that happens to be covered with tracking dots. I've been wondering when someone would try this, since it seems such a no-brainer. All of the performance expertise of a puppeteer, and none of the usual hassles in having to hide them from camera. Seems like only a matter of time before some production gets Frank Oz to perform Yoda this way.
• Kay is about what you'd expect; a thief/smuggler/all round scoundrel. Young, daring and very much beholden to nobody. I like that they mentioned that she's not a "go in guns blazing" type, and prefers to steer around violence, but still very capable and adept at improvisation when the shooting inevitably starts anyway.
• She starts the game already with a bounty on her head (for what, we don't know yet), and falls into the underworld to survive, but decides she actually likes the life.
• As one might expect from a game like this: her blaster is upgradable. The also implied what sounds like a skill tree and other equipment upgrade for Kay herself.
• There's also a reputation system, so what jobs you do with which syndicates . Imperial "Wanted" level can get very difficult.
• One thing I noted is that the chop-shop the demo starts in is taking apart not just Alliance ships, but what looks like a yellow Mining Guild TIE Fighter. Also spotted a Sienar-Chall Utilipede transport in the background.
• A somewhat novel feature for a modern game is that enemies can drop weapons in combat, and you can have Nix retrieve them for you (an A300 in this case.) Though if the gameplay footage is any indication, they don't seem to last long.
  
• As suspected, this location is a newly created world; it's a moon named Toshara, covered in open savannas and craggy mountains. It's run by the Empire, but deeply corrupt. The capital city is Mirogana, and is carved into mountain you saw on the poster and in the announcement trailer. While the main hub gameplay wise seems to be the little outpost called 'Jaunta's Hope'.
• The BX commando droid is called ND-5, and he's a Clone Wars vet turned underworld enforcer. He seems to be along for the ride with Kay for more than just the one job, but the implication in the trailer is that he's working for Jaylen and I'd guess he's mostly there to look after his interests, no Kay's (at least at first.)
• I don't know why, but I like that the fence is a female Mon Cala. I guess I'm enjoying Star Wars continue to get away from the idea of species as monolithic, so we're seeing traditionally "heroic" species in less than heroic, even villainous roles, and typically "bad guy" species. Like that asanine thing the EU would often get stuck into where just because Greedo happened to be a bounty hunter, that means all Rodians are obsessed with bounty hunting and that's all any of them want to be!
• As suspected, they have indeed created a new syndicate for this game called the Ashiga Clan.
• The new hero ship is called 'The Trailblazer', an EML 850 Light Freighter from the Republic era. So old, but not ancient. No word on whether it's upgradable too, but I wouldn't be surprised. The design has a kind of "blank slate" vibe to it that makes me think they want players to make it their own.
  
• Speaking of; not only is there space combat, there's also some space exploration gameplay. Probably more salvage and treasure hunting than actual exploration, and the ship combat (as with the speeder chase) looks to be very much on rails.
• Some other locations glimpsed at include; Akiva, which played a significant role in the Aftermath novels and home to Norra Wexley & he son Temmin, aka: Snap from the ST.(fingers crossed for A Mr. Bones cameo!). A tropical rainforest lake planet. What very much looks like Tatooine. Kijimi. And what looks like it could be Nar Shaddaa, but could be Coruscant underlevels, or similarly dense urban quacta hole. I hope it's Nar Shaddaa. Woudn't feel right to have a smuggler's game that didn't visit the smuggler's moon, and we do know the Hutt Clans are involved with the plot.

They apparently have a panel at SDCC, so look forward to more in a month or so.

 

[Tuskin38]

Returning planets, Akiva (which is from the Aftermath books), Kijimi, possibly Cantonica (Canto Bight) and what looks like Tatooine

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[137th Gebirg]

I am cautiously optimistic about this.

 

[JD]

I watched the gameplay video the other day, and it looks like a lot of fun.
I've been meaning to ask, is this different from Amy Hennig's game?

 

[Reverend]

I watched the gameplay video the other day, and it looks like a lot of fun.
I've been meaning to ask, is this different from Amy Hennig's game?

Yeah. This one is being published by Ubisoft and developed by Massive. Henning's game is being developed by her own studio; Skydance New Media, and seemingly published directly by Lucasfilm Games themselves. The assumption seems to be that this is a revival of 'Project Ragtag'.

For the record there's also a pair of games supposedly in development by EA/Respawn separate from the Jedi series. One FPS, one Strategy (Bit Reactor are also involved in the latter). I'm sure EA will get around to cancelling one or both of them soon enough!
Oh and of course there's 'Eclipse' at Quantic Dream, but I have my doubts about that one.