Is Star Wars Outlaws worth playing now and how do I access the Ubisoft free trial?
Table of Contents
Discover why the 3 ABY timeline led to four canceled DLCs and a scrapped sequel for Star Wars Outlaws. Get the data on sales and this week’s free trial.
Key Takeaways
What: Ubisoft ended Star Wars Outlaws post-launch support prematurely after the game sold only one million copies.
Why: The narrow 3 ABY setting restricted narrative freedom, leading to “fixed endpoints” that diminished player stakes.
How: Massive Entertainment scrapped four of six planned DLCs and a sequel to pivot toward future projects.
The Abandoned Roadmap for Star Wars Outlaws
Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment originally planned a massive post-launch journey for Star Wars Outlaws. Internal reports suggest the roadmap included six major DLC expansions designed to keep players engaged long after the credits rolled. Only two of those—Wild Card, featuring Lando Calrissian, and A Pirate’s Fortune, featuring Hondo Ohnaka—actually made it to release.
One of the most significant losses was a planned tie-in with the novel Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon. This cross-media expansion was intended to bridge the gap between the game and the broader literary canon, but it was scrapped when sales stalled at approximately one million copies. The disappointment was significant enough that Ubisoft has reportedly terminated plans for a sequel, signaling a hard stop for Kay Vess’s journey.
The 3 ABY Trap: Why “Safe” Canon Failed
Standard industry wisdom suggests that the Original Trilogy era is the safest, most profitable window for any Star Wars project. However, the performance of Outlaws offers a counter-intuitive lesson: the choice to set the game in 3 ABY—the narrow gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi—was actually its greatest liability.
While this era is instantly recognizable, it is also narrative quicksand. Because the films’ ending is already written in stone, players realized their choices couldn’t truly shift the balance of power in the galaxy. You can’t dismantle the Empire or permanently alter a crime syndicate when the “fixed endpoint” of the films is just months away. This lack of narrative stakes made the typical open-world “grind” feel repetitive rather than consequential. For a modern audience, a lovingly rendered atmosphere isn’t enough to compensate for a world that feels like it’s in stasis.
Commercial Reality and the Ubisoft Shift
Despite a respectable 75 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic, “decent” is no longer enough to support a blockbuster budget. Ubisoft’s leadership has acknowledged the game fell short of financial targets, attributing the struggle to “choppy waters” within the franchise. This underscores a shift in player expectations: even a polished Star Wars experience will struggle if it relies too heavily on familiar tropes and restrictive timelines.
How to Play for Free This Week
If you haven’t explored the criminal underworld of the Outer Rim yet, Ubisoft is offering a window to do so without a purchase. From June 18 to June 23, a free trial of Ubisoft+ Premium allows access to the full game.
Regional Launch Times:
- Americas: June 18, 6:00 AM PDT – June 23, 6:00 AM PDT
- Europe & Middle East: June 18, 3:00 PM CEST – June 23, 3:00 PM CEST
- Japan: June 18, 10:00 PM JST – June 23, 10:00 PM JST
- Asia & Oceania: June 18, 10:30 PM ACST – June 23, 10:30 PM ACST
What’s Next for the Galaxy?
While the road for Outlaws has ended prematurely, the Star Wars gaming calendar remains crowded. On October 6, 2026, Star Wars: Galactic Racer will bring podracing back to the forefront. Other upcoming titles include the strategy-focused Star Wars: Zero Company, the narrative-heavy Star Wars Eclipse, and the final chapter of Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi trilogy. Fans of the Old Republic also have Fate of the Old Republic and the long-anticipated KOTOR remake to look forward to, both of which promise the kind of narrative freedom Outlaws struggled to find.