Why Star Wars Outlaws failed but Hogwarts Legacy was a hitGameCentralPublished November 22, 2024 6:00pm One was the biggest hit of 2023 and the other was a game that came out in 2024 (Ubisoft/Warner Bros. Games/Metro)With a new patch for Star Wars Outlaws drastically altering a major gameplay element, GameCentral ponders how things ended up going so wrong and what it could mean for future Star Wars games.Calling Star Wars Outlaws a failure isnt quite fair. Its certainly not a bad game, depending on the level of affinity you have for the source material, but in terms of sales it does seem to have been a disappointment, especially to publisher Ubisoft.Outlaws was described as having a softer than expected launch back in August. It was only the second best-selling game of the month, losing out to the 11-year-old GTA 5, and its first week sales werent even half of what EAs Star Wars Jedi: Survivor managed in the same timeframe.Given the significance of the brand, Ubisoft was no doubt banking on Outlaws making up for what has otherwise been a lacklustre year for the company. Instead, its underperformance has only helped incentivise a possible Tencent buyout.What is the new Star Wars Outlaws patch?With the release of a significant patch and a Steam launch, Star Wars Outlaws reputation could yet improve, but why does it need salvaging in the first place and how did Ubisoft go so wrong with a quality game and a proven licence?We must re-emphasise that Star Wars Outlaws is not a bad game, nor has it had a Cyberpunk 2077 level disaster of a launch. Theres certainly an additional appeal if youre a Star Wars fan but taken on its own merits its a superior open world adventure, that avoids the usual tropes of Ubisoft games, such as obnoxious mission markers, icon-filled maps, and having to climb radio towers.Ubisofts reaction to the disappointing sales has been to drastically change key elements of the game, reducing the stealth aspect so that its only ever optional. This seems to be a knee jerk reaction to complaints that an early mission punished you too harshly for failing at stealth but its really just a superficial issue thats only going to put a bigger spotlight on the slightly underwhelming combat.What really hurt Star Wars Outlaws, aside from a curious lack of marketing (seriously, we felt we saw barely any ads for the game) is that it simply wasnt what Star Wars fans were looking for in a video game. Or at least didnt offer anything distinctly Star Wars that you couldnt find in any other sci-fi game.Weve often joked over the years, that our dream game is a Han Solo simulator. Not necessarily in terms of controlling the character himself but just doing the sort of things he was implied to have been up to before he met Ben Kenobi. In our minds it wouldve been a mix between Elite Dangerous and Grand Theft Auto something that doesnt currently exist in gaming and would be completely unique in and of itself.Outlaws is certainly the closest theres ever been to a GTA style game in the Star Was universe but its still not very close, and in gameplay and narrative terms it doesnt do anything new or unusual. If youre a Star Wars fan the novelty of it being a competent open world game set in that world is considerable but for everyone else, its just another Ubisoft game.Whats perhaps more important is that Outlaws is not a game anyone asked for. Weve wished for a Han Solo simulator for decades, while we and others have also dreamed of a bounty hunter simulator perhaps one where you create your own custom character (will I be like Bossk or 4-LOM?) and toured the galaxy looking for your quarry. Even a Mandalorian tie-in wouldve been something, but for some reason EA cancelled that idea. Star Wars Outlaws not a bad game but not a dream one either (Ubisoft)For a franchise that will be 50 years old in a few years there is so much food left on the table when it comes to Star Wars video games, with many concepts either never attempted or just done badly. Even something as simple as gun combat has never worked the way generations of kids imagined it would, who just point their fingers and make pew pew noises in the playground.The blasters and other weapons in Star Wars seem to have real weight and power in the movies and yet even in a first person shooter like Battlefront they come across as weedy and insubstantial. Lightsabers have generally fared better but its really on with EAs Star Wars Jedi series that theyve begun to feel like an accurate representation of the films.Most Star Wars games just dont give fans what they want, either at a top level or in terms of the details. And yet when it does work out, such as with the ancient X-Wing and TIE Fighter series, the end result is not just pleasing for fans but resulted in genuine classics that defined a whole genre.Why was Hogwarts Legacy so successful?The obvious point of refence in modern times is with the Harry Potter franchise, which has never had any game of any real quality, until 2023s Hogwarts Legacy. Its very good but it has an important advantage over something like Outlaws: its an experience fans have been dreaming of for years.A Harry Potter action role-playing game, which allows you to enrol at Hogwarts and play as your own custom character, while exploring a large open world environment and doing whatever you want within the Wizarding World is exactly what fans have wanted and being calling for since the very beginning. It also doesnt hurt that there hasnt been a big budget Harry Potter game in a long time, creating extra demand.By comparison, Outlaws is nowhere close to that level of wish fulfilment, even though its pretty equal in terms of overall quality. You could argue that both franchises are roughly the same level of prominence at the moment. Depending on how you interpret the wildly differing qualities of the Disney+ Star Wars shows, neither has had a major critical or commerical hit in a long time and both have started to drift out of the mainstream consciousness.But whereas Outlaws was barely a blip on the radar in terms of video games, let alone anything else, Hogwarts Legacy has revitalised Warner Bros. Games and inspired its parent company to push forward with multiple new Harry Potter projects, including a massively expensive new HBO show.Hogwarts Legacy gave fans exactly what they wanted, whereas Star Wars Outlaws was just another tie-in that didnt seem to quite understand its audience or the franchises video game potential.More TrendingEvery diehard Harry Potter fan has envisioned attending Hogwarts, getting assigned a house, learning spells, flying on broomsticks, etc. and Hogwarts Legacy gave them the chance to do all that, just as they had always wanted. In fact, it was so popular many former fans, who dropped off the series a long time ago, were tempted back by the promise of a game they once could only dream of.As the increasingly long list of flop Marvel games proves, no media franchise is a licence to print money. As Outlaws (and Marvels Midnight Suns) shows its not enough to make a good game, it has to be one that fulfils the dreams of fans, either generally or in terms of specific game ideas theyve always wanted to see.In fact, you could easily argue that quality is not the most important thing when it comes to a licensed game, as long as it reaches a certain base level. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 isnt an especially good game its competent more than exceptional but it does understand its audience and it gives them exactly what they want in terms of visuals, tone, and a sense of seeing and experiencing things in a game that they were only previously able to imagine in their head.A successful licensed video game is all about making the fictional world come alive around you. If the player isnt thinking to themselves this is just how I imagined itd be while they play then its failed. The game has to be at least competent, but it also has to be undiluted wish fulfilment. Otherwise its just a generic video game with a famous name attached. Hogwarts Legacy it knows what its audience wants (Warner Bros. 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