Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claims Star Wars Outlaws’ weak sales are not just the game’s fault, but also because “the Star Wars franchise is going through turbulent times.” Guillemot added: “There were still things that needed to be fixed,” admitting these issues affected the game’s performance at launch.

Star Wars Outlaws was billed as the most ambitious Star Wars adventure yet, promising gamers a vast open world and a daring protagonist to explore the seedy underbelly of the galaxy. All the right ingredients were in place to generate hype among Star Wars fans. But when the game finally arrived, it was far from flawless, dividing the community and leading to disappointment. Now, Ubisoft’s boss is offering a new reason why the sales didn’t meet expectations.

During a recent shareholder meeting, Yves Guillemot stated that Star Wars Outlaws’ sluggish sales partly reflect the fact that “the Star Wars brand itself is currently going through a rough patch.” According to him, enthusiasm for Disney’s sci-fi giant is no longer what it used to be, and that hit Outlaws as well.

The CEO also admitted that the game had its share of rough edges at launch, but said the team moved quickly to address the most glaring bugs in the first few weeks. “Those launch problems really affected the sales numbers,” Guillemot said, before emphasizing that subsequent updates have “significantly improved” the experience and that the upcoming Switch 2 edition will be “a completely new version” (via Insider Gaming).

Yet, Guillemot’s take stands in contrast to the recent surge of interest in Star Wars Battlefront 2, which saw its player count skyrocket this year despite being on the market for ages. Meanwhile, Outlaws recently received its second major expansion, but only a handful of updates are left before Ubisoft calls it quits. The company’s final big play will be the Switch 2 launch on September 4.

Source: 3djuegos