As Obi-Wan Kenobi himself would say, "These aren't the sales you're looking for." With the once-gargantuan Star Wars IP struggling on the small screen with The Acolyte and cancelling movies faster than it produces Clone Troopers, Star Wars Outlaws could be the latest victim of franchise fatigue.

Respawn Entertainment gave 'a new hope' to Star Wars fans with Fallen Order, and following the success of the 2019 game, a slew of titles were quickly pushed into production. While we're concerned for Quantic Dreams' Star Wars Eclipse, Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws could be a worrying sign of things to come.

Star Wars Outlaws and Ubisoft could be in trouble

Our own review of Outlaws billed it as much more as Uncharted in space, but that hasn't stopped the harshest critics from dubbing it a 'discount' version of Naughty Dog's smuggler series. With middling reviews declaring that Outlaws is perfectly fine, it seems the swatches of negativity surrounding the title could be affecting its sales.

According to Reuters, Outlaws has fallen short of its sales expectations, which follows in the footsteps of XDefiant's crisis talks. The dominoes are all falling at once, with Ubisoft's shares down by 5.1% on September 2 and continuing to fall since. 

Worryingly, Ubisoft's shares were at the lowest since 2015 as of the end of trading on September 2, adding to a 30% drop since the start of 2024. J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven says Outlaws “has struggled to meet our sales expectations despite positive critical reviews." Sales expectations have now been lowered from 7.5 million to 5.5 million units until the end of the March 31, 2025, fiscal year. 

We're sure a certain vocal minority will be pleased by this, and we can already see the YouTube titles of "Go woke, go broke." Outlaws has been fighting a losing battle with some, calling out the idea of a female protagonist and even branding Kay Vess as 'ugly'. It's the same tired rhetoric from the sometimes toxic gaming community, who'll likely love that Outlaws is selling short. 

Outlaws' development budget is said to be at least 30% higher than Assassin's Creed Mirage, but with Twitch data suggesting that it's underperforming the 2023 game by 15%, it's a cause for concern. 

Ubisoft is on some uneven ground right now, especially as Assassin's Creed Shadows is charting its own accusations of 'racism' due to the inclusion of Yasuke as a black Samurai. Some are calling for a change of leadership amidst complaints that those on high don't know what to do with these massive IPs.

It's possible for Outlaws to turn things around with its planned DLC content, but alongside average reviews and slashed sales expectations, we're concerned that Emperor Palpatine could be getting the last laugh here. Can Assassin's Creed Shadows cut through the competition with a samurai sword? Find out in October.