Ubisoft revealed a new short-term road map on Friday for Star Wars Outlaws following a surprise announcement that it would be overhauling its development process because of weak sales.
A Ubisoft spokesperson called the Outlaws launch “softer than expected” in a statement to investors earlier this week, and promised that it would be implementing updates to polish the game and “improve the player experience” in the hopes it’ll sell more copies this holiday season.
For the road map posted on X (formerly Twitter), the team explained that it would be putting its focus on bug fixes first, followed by quality-of-life changes over the course of October to get ready for its first story pack, called Wild Card, on November 21. The developers will release another update after the launch to add combat and stealth improvements and new contracts for hero Kay Vess.
“Our team is currently working hard to address your feedback and deliver new content,” the post reads. “More title updates will be heading your way in the coming weeks.”
Our team is currently working hard to address your feedback and deliver new content.
More title updates will be heading your way in the coming weeks along with the release of our first story pack on November 21st.
Stay tuned for more information soon. pic.twitter.com/3mapFT2Pyx
— Star Wars Outlaws (@StarWarsOutlaws) September 27, 2024
Outlaws launched at the end of August to mixed reviews from critics and players. We at Digital Trends loved the world design but felt it lacked the depth of other Star Wars games — and even some of Ubisoft’s other open-world RPGs. Many complaints discussed the stealth gameplay, with some sections having an “instant fail” mechanic that would force you to start over. There have also been performance issues, and the developers have been working since launch to update the experience.
In response to the reaction to Outlaws, Ubisoft opted to delay the release of its next title, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, to February 14, 2025, for extra polishing. PC players also got some additional good news: that both Shadows and Outlaws will be playable via Steam instead of Ubisoft directly.
Assassins Creed Shadows is also getting rid of the season pass model. Outlaws was the subject of some controversy when its season pass was launched, as it gave buyers access to an optional Jabba the Hutt-centric mission that wouldn’t be available elsewhere. It also hiked the price up from the now-standard $70 to $110 for the game with season pass included, which got you the two planned DLC story packs and three days of early access.
CEO Yves Guillemot also confirmed that the company will be conducting an audit of the company’s development process in order to move toward a more “player-centric approach.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.