19
Richard Walker
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Following its launch last week, Star Wars Outlaws hasn't quite managed to live up to Ubisoft's expectations where sales numbers are concerned, resulting in the company's stock falling to its lowest level in almost a decade.
Since the game released via Gold and Ultimate Edition early access on 27th August, Ubi has seen its share price drop by 12.6%, according to Reuters (via GameSpot) - the lowest it's been since 2015. JP Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven writes that Star Wars Outlaws has “struggled to meet sales expectations despite positive critical reviews.”
Outlaws' budget was also around 30% more than that of Assassin's Creed Mirage, with sales projected to reach around 5.5 million by March 2025. While that doesn't sound like a failure, it's apparently around 2 million units short of what Kerven reckons Ubisoft had been expecting.
Combine that with free-to-play shooter XDefiant currently on a downturn after a decent start, and it's perhaps unsurprising that Ubisoft has suffered a fall in its share price. Star Wars Outlaws is available for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC - you can read our review here.
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19
Under9000
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 01:17 PM
Comment #1
Its a shame to hear, it looks to be an ambitious project.
200kGamerScore
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 01:33 PM
Comment #2
Good. Finally they will see how lazy they have become
BAK3D B34N
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 02:14 PM
Comment #3
Seems surprising. Usually anything attached to Star Wars does pretty well. To be honest I still haven’t looked too much into it but I have seen a couple of comments mentioning poor performance/graphics at times. Not sure how the gameplay stacks up overall.
And to add to the XDefiant comment, they’ve been told they have until the end of Season 3 to get the numbers back up or they’re going to pull the plug on support (think the game would still remain up for the time being though) and that’ll definitely mean more job losses at Ubisoft San Fran.
I hope this year really kicks Ubi awake and has them re-prioritise things. Maybe we’ll actually see new a new Rayman, Splinter Cell, or Driver game
Z0mbie8myBra1nZ
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 02:40 PM
Comment #4
I am 40 hours in and I haven't had a single problem with the game. No crashes, no frame drops, graphics look great. It's been an enjoyable game too.
ViNyLek
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 03:25 PM
Comment #5
I don’t think it’s a problem with game it even a fact that Ubi usually releases games full of glitches (scope basically warrants that)…
I think market has been over saturated for a while. Sometimes I am stuck scrolling through store like I am on Netflix unable to make up my mind.. Tgere is too much if everything everywhere that differs only slightly from the next best thing.
Also, school just started too, so kids are unlikely to be picking up new games right now which must hurt any projections one might have? I look forward to this one, but with my Space Marine 2 CE arriving today followed by Silent Hill 2 and AC Shadows later same month, it’s really hard to play all games that look good:-/
MC Something
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 03:44 PM
Comment #6
I think another huge part of the problem is that people these days just love to bash things (specifically Star Wars "fans") and, since a large majority of the population has spent the last 10 to 15 years getting their opinions from the internet, a bunch of YouTubers (who got lucky by being a YouTuber and not by actually learning a craft or being a legitimate critic) have way too much sway when it comes to this stuff.
People will base reviews on early access or even alpha level progress of a game, give their two cents, and then it spreads like wild fire. The same thing happened with Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League. Now...is that a great game? Absolutely not. It suffers from a bunch of stuffed shirts making decisions based on money instead of letting their devs create a game that gamers actually want. Is it an unplayable mess? Not at all. The game plays just fine. Better than most other shooters of it's kind. Granted...I don't mess with a lot of live service shooters but I've seen enough of to know that this one looks better than those, in my opinion. But the world of internet "journalists" went nuts, which made others follow suit (because no one can form their own opinions anymore) and then a bunch of gamers watched those videos (because who reads anymore...?) and then THEY had their opinions. Expectations were set, and regardless of the end product, those expectations would be met.
I'm ranting... Back to work with me!
MC Something
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 03:47 PM
Comment #7
Oh, and for the record, I will definitely be buying Star Wars Outlaws. Because even if it isn't "perfect", it's still a god damn open world Star Wars game! If you can't have fun in that world, that's fair. Go play somewhere else. Just bring your opinions with you.
NOW I'm done.
Yourburntstar
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 04:37 PM
Comment #8
I know just from my perspective and experience that I purposefully haven’t payed full price for a game since at least 2012.
Not because I cannot do so, but because that’s when games started to become way too cookie cutter/copy and paste bullsh*t just with a different scheme and name attached to it which goes across ALL genres of games. Whether that’s RPG, Action, Racing, Sports etc.
The industry found the formula to push out games like pancakes and stopped worrying about whether or not games are actually enjoyable to play or if they even play correctly without game breaking glitches.
Once people starting voting with their wallets that’s when companies will start to take notice, kinda like this article.
I only hope this trend continues that way change does actually take place in the industry and can be returned to good quality games.
sh*t blows my mind that we have the best technology for the industry ever in it’s entire lifespan, yet the industry as a whole doesn’t have the capacity to see they need better writers and more creative games.
Goggs
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 04:39 PM
Comment #9
Good games today are way over priced since the lazy scumbags refuse to fix there games before release.
Chuppernicus
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 04:58 PM
Comment #10
Publishers always seem to overestimate the sales numbers for a game.
I can't wait to play this game. Hope to buy it by the holidays. Just too busy right now.Developing games is such a complex thing. It's hard to figure out why a game is released the way it is. Was it the publisher pushing to get it out too early? Did the developer over sell what they could produce in a given timeframe? Was the initial idea to broad or complex to finish in a reasonable amount of time? Was it bad management that led to a less focused approach and resulted in lost time?
homerjay
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 05:25 PM
Comment #11
Every game these days is open world. Red Dead and GTA are the only games I’m interested in being open world.
Ingen Kommentar
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 05:41 PM
Comment #12
I do want to play this game at one point.. But as so many other gamers, I simply have such a huge backlog of games that I'm set back for years and years to come... And with services like GP I really can't justify buying full price retain games no matter how good they may be.
Also unless you only fancy one or two genres of games, there is releasing new games constantly so how do anyone have time to play all those games. I think the industri as a whole would benefit if they slowed a bit down with the quantity of releases and focus on the quality when they release games.DEG23
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 06:03 PM
Comment #13
I also wonder what their expectations are? There's been plenty of games in the past that sold well but the execs wanted even more sold so they said it underperformed.
For me personally I don't buy games at release any more. Loads of factors including a huge backlog and putting money elsewhere in my life but also because so many games release broken these days and with all the updates and DLC it's better to buy them a year or two down the track when you get the complete, bug free version for a fraction of the original price.
ch33zy
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 06:21 PM
Comment #14
I bought star wars outlaws, and I think it's a cracking game..
The trouble is.. People on the fence are gonna buy one month's ubisoft plus.. Play it for 5 minute, not like it, then hate it.
And base their judgment on the beginning.
The more you okay it the better it gets.ChocolateCHIPHelicopter
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 07:16 PM
Comment #15
@14. That is a valid point, but first impressions matter, and if the game doesn't capture you at the start, that is the fault of the design
Treewaller
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 07:43 PM
Comment #16
10 years ago was when watch dogs released and the doctored e3 graphics were found hidden in the game files. Activision had their COD2 ads pulled for false advertising, don't know why ubisoft keeps getting away with it.
Dirty130
Wednesday, September 04, 2024 @ 10:33 PM
Comment #17
Don't care / f*ck Ubisoft
Poppa Krunch
Thursday, September 05, 2024 @ 02:17 AM
Comment #18
Ubisoft to gamers - get used to not owning our games
Gamers to Ubisoft - get used to not having a company lolDervius
Thursday, September 05, 2024 @ 02:53 AM
Comment #19
Not fully surprised.
It does look like a decent game in many ways, and most reviewers I trust have very positive things to say about it, but the budget (especially the marketing budget) was pretty wild for this game.
They took a big swing, are projected to sell 5.5 million copies by next March but that'd still 2 million short of what they wanted.
Perhaps it's the inflated budget and unrealistic expectations that are part of the problem. That and legitimate criticisms about the technical delivery and performance of Uni games.
I also think releasing this so close to AC Shadows seems like a really odd decision. Granted, they're not exactly the same but there's overlap there in major open world third person action games.
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