Star Wars Outlaws has an official release date, pre-order details revealed

Ubisoft has announced that Star Wars Outlaws will launch on August 30, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

In a world premiere YouTube video today (April 9), Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment debuted the official story trailer for Star Wars Outlaws, which showcased a deeper look at what players can expect from the franchise's first-ever open-world game set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

In the trailer, we see Outlaws' playable protagonist Kay Vess, a human who has fought to make a life for herself as a thief during Imperial reign, alongside her lifelong companion Nix exploring different planets in the Outer Rim. 

We're introduced to even more characters the player will meet during the story, including Sliro, the leader of the crime syndicate Zerek Besh, who seems to be the game's primary antagonist aside from the Empire. 

Later, another nameless character tells Kay that she "crossed their boss Sliro and now he wants you gone. Rob his fortune and buy your freedom", suggesting this will be the main objective of the story. 

However, another character - which we assume is a bounty hunter hired by Sliro to go after Kay - says that "Vess is mixed up in something bigger", but we'll have to wait and see what this means.

In terms of gameplay, we see more footage of space battles and speeder traversal, this time over bodies of water, across all sorts of different planets, including the casino planet Canto Bight and Tattooine, as well as some locales brand-new to the Star Wars universe. 

Alongside her blaster, it seems that Kay can also climb buildings, slide down rooftops - similar to Cal Kestis in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - and use stealth to her advantage to take down all sorts of enemies. 

It looks like she can also order Nix to complete small tasks during missions and she even has a neat-looking grappling hook that allows her to scale walls and overcome other obstacles too. 

The trailer also confirmed that there will be a Gold and Ultimate Edition available to pre-order now, both of which come with a Season Pass and three days of early access. Pre-ordering the game will unlock The Kessel Runner bonus pack, which comes with a ship and speeder.

Meanwhile, the Season Pass will include two upcoming story downloadable content (DLC) packs which are an "instant unlock", as well as access to Exclusive Day 1 - Jabba's Gambit mission and the Kay and Nix Kessel Runner cosmetics kit.

In the trailer, we did see a scene featuring Kay meeting with Jabba the Hutt, and even encountering Han Solo frozen in carbonite within Jabba's Palace, although it's not confirmed if this was a teaser for the upcoming DLC pack or if it will be featured in the main game itself.

The release date for Massive Entertainment's upcoming game was actually leaked earlier today in the description of the Ubisoft Japan YouTube video for the new trailer (via Gematsu). The leak also included details about the previously mentioned preorder details, before the video was taken down.

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