It almost feels unbelievable to say this, but there’s a corner of a galaxy far, far away in a time long ago that remains largely untread by the over one hundred Star Wars video games released over the past four decades. That all changes when Star Wars Outlaws drops this week, which promises to deliver on the fantasy of the scoundrel.
That’s right, between the Star Wars games that feature the space guns and the Star Wars games that retell the entire saga in LEGO form, there hasn’t been much in the way of experiences that feature small crimes, big scores and general intergalactic skulduggery. Most of the critically acclaimed and beloved Star Wars games feature tales of laser sword derring do, like 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its 2023 sequel Jedi Survivor or put you in a cockpit like all-time favorite Star Wars: X-Wing, TIE Fighter and their spiritual descendant, 2020’s Star Wars: Squadrons.
But it’s not been for any lack of interest or enthusiasm. Previous attempts have been made to take players to the morally gray corners of the Star Wars galaxy. Consider Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, the 2002 tie-in to Episode II: Attack of the Clones that launched on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The game was a by the numbers third person adventure that centered on Jango Fett, the original clone daddy and jetpack mercenary, but gave us a peek at the underworld, albeit behind the shinier lens of the prequel era.
But really many of the reasons behind why we’ve not gotten a serious look at the Star Wars criminal underbelly before has to do with business and the fickle fortunes of the LucasFilm empire itself. For years, one of the most talked about games among gamers and Star Wars fans was Star Wars: 1313. Billed as a gritty and mature action adventure set in the bowels of lower Coruscant, 1313 began development while LucasArts and its parent company LucasFilm was still a private company run by the notorious G.L. himself, George Lucas.
In fact, Lucas was personally involved in the direction of 1313’s development. After a few years, it was decided that fan favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett would star in 1313 and was unveiled at E3 2012 via closed doors presentations to journalists. And it dazzled and impressed. The game clearly drew inspiration from run-and-gun adventure games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider with a mix of chase scenes, traversal puzzles and combat. A quaint combination in a post-Jedi Survivor world, but still for 2012 it was an exciting mix for a videogame franchise previously focused on pod racing and planetary battles.
But despite the positive reception, LucasArts went dark on 1313. The project was quietly ended after George Lucas sold LucasFilm and the entire Star Wars franchise to the Walt Disney Company. The House of Mouse decided that the future of Star Wars games would be studio licensing, putting an end to all in-house developments. It subsequently made a deal with EA, which secured a decade long exclusivity on Star Wars games. While it’s that deal that produced Squadrons and the Jedi and Battlefront series, EA also wrestled with its own 1313.
At EA’s Visceral Games studio, another narrative-centered Star Wars action adventure spun up into development. Visceral was responsible for the blockbuster Dead Space franchise, and had former Uncharted series director Amy Hennig on staff to lead the a scoundrel focused project, which became known by the codename “Project Ragtag.” At E3 2016, the game was teased as part of the company’s “Star Wars: Look Ahead” promotional video. But alas it was not to be: EA shut down Visceral in 2017 and relocated the project to its Vancouver studio, where it was tasked to “pivot the design.”
Hennig left EA not long after and the game was quietly canceled in 2019, reminding players that big publishers like EA had a lack of faith in story-based single-player games as they continued development of the Battlefront franchise, a multiplayer version of Star Wars not unlike the publisher’s precious Battlefield series of military shooters, while trying (and failing) to sneak in microtransactions and randomly drawn rewards (aka loot boxes).
Hennig has since moved to Skydance New Media, where she is set to lead a production of another “cinematic action-adventure game” set in Star Wars, but not before they finish Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. And prior to EA’s Star Wars exclusivity deal expiring last year, Disney and Lucasfilm moved to sign deals with publishers like Ubisoft to take a stab at the IP. Star Wars Outlaws entered development back in 2021, as part of a deal that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot described as “the beginning of a long-term collaboration.”
Already early reviews have poured in for the game, developed by Swedish studio Massive Entertainment, and the reception though mixed, is mostly positive. It remains to be seen whether the broader videogaming public will embrace Outlaws as the definitive Star Wars criminal experience.
