If you still haven’t upgraded to the current generation of gaming consoles, you may be reading headlines about the upcoming open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws with a hint of jealousy. But while Ubisoft’s new title is only coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, one of the best Star Wars games of the last decade is about to land on PS4 and Xbox One.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the second installment in Respawn’s Star Wars souls-like series, will be land on PS4 and Xbox One on September 17. The release comes nearly a year and a half after the original PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC versions launched.
The last-gen port of the game will run for $50 at retail, and “feature a variety of optimizations aimed at maximizing the hardware capabilities of the consoles,” according to EA. This version will also come with free cosmetics, including a lightsaber and an outfit, inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
EA first announced this version of Jedi: Survivor during an investor call last August. The fact that the company was willing to dedicate over a year to porting the technically impressive game to less powerful hardware is a testament to the staying power of last-gen consoles. As has been reported by industry analysts like Mat Piscatella, the current generation of consoles has sold well, but has yet to reach the same saturation point as their predecessors.
There are a few reasons for this. For one, the latest consoles were notoriously difficult to find for over a year following their launch, making early adoption slower than usual. Publishers and developers have also been reluctant to drop support for those old consoles considering just how many more of them have been sold. And when the most popular games on the market, including Grand Theft Auto Online and Fortnite, run just fine on old hardware, casual players are seemingly unconvinced that spending $500 for an upgrade is worth it.
It’s why some of the biggest games of the last few years have been cross-generation. Annual Call Of Duty releases, Hogwarts Legacy, and the Resident Evil 4 remake all launched on PS4 and Xbox One. As of today, the PS4 has sold 117 million units, while the Xbox One has sold over 50 million. With such a massive install base, it’s just good business for game companies to put in the extra work to make the latest games available there as well.
In the case of Jedi: Survivor, it’ll be fascinating to see what technological feats of engineering Respawn Entertainment will pull to convert the game to older consoles. The original release was an impressive showcase for new hardware both in terms of visuals and the creative use of lightning-fast load times. Specifically, the game’s Jedha level uses SSD tech to rapidly and seamlessly load players in and out of sections of the level. The result was one of the most exhilarating game set pieces of 2023. Considering the older consoles don’t have the tech required, Respawn will no doubt have to rework Jedha’s big finale to something less taxing.
Regardless of how scaled back some of the game’s bigger moments are, this one is well worth players' time. Picking up just a few years after 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, Survivor follows Jedi-in-hiding Cal Kestis and the rest of the Stinger Mantis crew as they come face-to-face with a new enemy threat out of time. It’s an excellent game that expands on nearly all of the first game’s ideas. The best comparison between the first and second Jedi games is the jump from Batman: Arkham Asylum to Batman: Arkham City.
Respawn also announced that Jedi: Survivor’s PC version would get a new patch in the coming weeks. The PC version famously launched in a poor state last year, with framerate hitches, stutters, and broken visual effects plaguing the release. This upcoming patch will bring further “enhancements to the game’s technical performance, controls and more, plus a variety of quality-of-life improvements,” according to EA.
