Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game, lets you live out a “scoundrel fantasy” and even work with the infamous crime lord Jabba the Hutt – or double-cross him. Whether this means Kay has some influence over events tied to Han Solo is uncertain, but Outlaws director Julian Gerighty told IGN that when protagonist Kay Vess visits Tatooine, getting tangled up with the Hutt syndicate is just part of what Ubisoft Massive has in store.
Gerighty said the goal is letting players experience hives of scum and villainy from the ground up, as if they were really there, seeing everything these cities, dives, and cesspools have to offer. It’s not just on Tatooine, either. Ubisoft Massive created at least one brand-new location that Kay will visit: the moon Toshara, a vast location inspired by the African savannah and Tanzania in particular.
“We start off with a biome, in this case, southeast African biomes as an inspiration, and then you put a twist on it to make it feel a little bit alien,” Gerighty told IGN. “If you think of the first shots, maybe not the first shots, but the first the shots of Tatooine. Beautiful, recognizable architecture, but two suns. For us, it’s having this huge mountain and carved into it into the amberine of the mountain, the crystalline substance is a city, and these outcroppings of orange, very reflective material. That’s what brings the really alien nature to it. Familiar but fresh.”
Whether it’s Tatooine’s vices or Toshara’s new city, Gerighty said the team took a virtual tourism approach in the open-world game to help players really live out the scoundrel fantasy at Outlaws’ core. They designed Toshara and even Tatooine in close detail, so players can visit iconic locations, such as the Mos Eisley cantina, discover something new or interesting in every cranny, or see just how long it takes to reach the city from the outlying moisture farms.
Star Wars Outlaws is set to launch sometime in 2024.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
