Last month, in a financial update for investors, Ubisoft revealed that sales for Star Wars Outlaws were "softer than expected." The publisher didn't give us an exact number of copies sold, but it didn't sound good. And it actually caused the publisher to rethink the handling of its launch for Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Now a new report from Insider-Gaming has revealed how many copies were sold in the game's first month and it's even worse than imagined. Citing "sources close to the game," the site reports that Star Wars Outlaws has sold just over one million sales worldwide.
That's an incredibly low amount, especially for a blockbuster title set within the Star Wars universe. It's estimated that the total budget for Star Wars Outlaws development, licensing, and marketing is between $200 and $300 million. Ubisoft hasn't revealed the exact cost for the game, but earlier this year Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that Star Wars Outlaws had the "biggest marketing campaign ever so far for a Ubisoft game."
To put these sales into perspective, Assassin's Creed Mirage — the latest release in Ubisoft's flagship Assassin's Creed franchise —had sold five million copies three months after it had launched.
There was immense hype surrounding Star Wars Outlaws, especially as it was revealed to be the first-ever open-world Star Wars game ever created. Early trailers and demos painted an exciting action adventure as you take on the role of a scoundrel seeking freedom from her life in the seedy underworld, dealing with the galaxy's most dangerous crime syndicates. Of course, there were the usual detractors — grifters upset over the fact that the game starred a female protagonist, deeming it "woke."
The biggest trouble for Star Wars Outlaws, though, was its actual gameplay. Early impressions and gameplay previews highlighted the game's poor stealth mechanics and numerous bugs and glitches. Ubisoft has worked to address many of these problems, but it appears the damage has already been done.
There's a chance with the holidays right around the corner that sales could pick up. Ubisoft has already confirmed, "We're hard at work creating multiple title updates, which will bring optimization, gameplay polishing, and tweaks as well as quality of life changes, including adjustments to combat and stealth gameplay."
For what it's worth, Star Wars Outlaws does have generally favorable reviews. On review aggregator Metacritic, the game sits at a solid 76/100 on PlayStation and PC and a 75 on Xbox. Many seem to enjoy the overall story and characters in the game, with most of the criticism geared towards the lack of original ideas and numerous technical issues, the latter of which will hopefully be addressed.