Yesterday, Ubisoft officially announced that its upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws will be released later this year on August 30th. However, if you want to enjoy this open-world adventure, you will be required to be connected to the internet to simply install it, whether you bought the discs or not.
Star Wars: Outlaws is set in between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and follows the adventures of Kay Vess, an underworld scoundrel, as she seeks to earn her freedom by robbing one of the largest players in the galactic underworld.
The trailer itself showcases multiple locations in the Star Wars universe, including the iconic Tatooine. It sees Vess brush shoulders with some heavyweights of the Star Wars canon, including Jabba the Hut himself. The trailer shows a ton of gameplay, with Vess slinking across buildings, stealthily taking out enemies, and even piloting starships in battle against the Empire itself.
It looks like a fun romp, and it's great to see that it's fast approaching later this year on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles. However, what's not fun to see is the cost of some of the collector's editions.
Games are already expensive, with many of the main AAA budget titles costing gamers at least $70. Collector's Editions have always been more expensive, offering cosmetic and item perks in-game and a way for developers to package their season passes with the title. Outlaws is no different. Now the various Star Wars Outlaws versions run up to $130 for the Ultimate Collector's Edition, which comes with a digital art book, two separate cosmetic packs, the season pass, and Early Access to the game.
Are we at a point where we can stop calling it Early Access and call it what it truly is: the launch date?
The $110 Gold edition is simply the base game, that "Early Access" period of three days and the season pass. Ubisoft is also using Star Wars Outlaws as a way to promote its Ubisoft + Premium service, which gives you access to the Ultimate Edition and all its perks, as well as other titles in Ubisoft's library.
Meanwhile, regardless of how you purchased Star Wars Outlaws, you'll need to make sure your internet connection is good to download it, even if you bought the physical discs for console. Spotted by Wario64 on Twitter (via Kotaku), Star Wars Outlaws is yet another game that requires an internet connection to install. However, Ubisoft did confirm to Kotaku that you won't need to be online to actually play the game, which brought about a sigh of relief as too many single-player games nowadays require an online connection just to play them.
Either way, Star Wars Outlaws is looking rather excellent, and I can't wait to learn more as we get closer. Star Wars games have seen something of a recent quality renaissance lately, as Outlaws grabs the torch from the most recent excellent entry in the canon, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
