Update: Disney Parks have now removed the word “late” from their original blurb.
Original article:
Disney have officially confirmed that the Star Wars game set to be released by Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft, Star Wars: Outlaws, will be released “late 2024” following a delay.
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In October, Ubisoft delayed an unnamed large game to an unknown time in their next fiscal year, which begins on April 1st, 2024 until March 31st, 2025. Though Ubisoft themselves didn’t explicitly state that this title was Star Wars: Outlaws, various outlets reported that it was. Outlaws was announced officially in Summer of 2023 with a release planned during Ubisoft’s fiscal year that would run until March 31st, 2024.
Many optimistic fans had hoped that the delay would be slight, hoping that the title would release sometime in the Spring, with some pointing towards May for obvious reasons. However, being the realist that I am (and the destroyer of joy), I always assumed the delay would see the Outlaws title shift into the Fall of 2024, so that Ubisoft could capitalise on the holiday period and the Fall is typically when the ‘big’ releases occur – Ubisoft themselves typically releases entries in their Assassins Creed franchise during this period.
Delaying Outlaws to the Fall would also give developers more time to perfect the game and would hopefully prevent the team from becoming overworked, something that’s very prevalent in the video games industry. In April last year, Kotaku reported that sources close to the project felt that Ubisoft’s ambitions of a release by March 31st, 2024 seemed unrealistic, and given the work needed, a release sometime during the following fiscal year seemed more realistic. Less than a year on from the Kotaku report, Outlaws has found itself slipping into Ubisoft’s fiscal 2024/2025 calendar and now thanks to Disney, we know roughly when to expect it.
Of all places, I did not expect the Disney Park’s website to confirm the release window for the upcoming Ubisoft release. Within their ‘24 Ooh-Worthy Things at Disney Experiences in 2024’ article, it’s revealed that Star Wars: Outlaws will receive a release in the late part of 2024, “the open-world Star Wars game is set to release late this year.” So what does late 2024 mean?
As mentioned earlier in the article, months ahead of this tidbit, I believed the delay Outlaws suffered would see it release in the Fall of 2024. My guess is that the title will land in the fourth quarter of the year which covers the final three months of the year, October, November and December. Most modern Star Wars video games have released around the time of a live-action series or film release – EA’s Battlefront’s released one month before The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Jedi: Fallen Order released a month ahead of The Rise of Skywalker, Squadrons released during the same month as The Mandalorian season two and Jedi: Survivor released the month The Mandalorian season three concluded.
2024 will see the release of two live-action Star Wars series, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. Four months ago I shared an exclusive report that detailed the release windows for many upcoming live-action Star Wars series and within the article, I shared that I was told that The Acolyte was to release first, with my speculation being a Summer release and that I had been informed by sources that Skeleton Crew had been delayed into November 2024 (this information was later backed-up by MakingStarWars in November). So with that in mind, I expect to see Outlaws release around the time of the release of Skeleton Crew, so I’d be hedging my bets for a release around October, or more so November this year.
In other Star Wars news, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel), the director of the next Star Wars film, which will see Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker constructing a new Jedi Order, spoke with CNN briefly to share an update on her film. Obaid-Chinoy said, “I feel what we’re about to create is something very special. We’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story in a galaxy far, far away.” I saw a bunch of outlets covering the story yesterday, but didn’t think it deserved its own article. Breaking, filmmaker thinks their film is good.
As you can tell, it’s a new year, but it’s most certainly not a new me – I’m still the same grumpy disappointment I’ve always been. However, I am happy to have more diverse filmmakers helping to create new stories in the galaxy far, far away. Happy New Year, folks.
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