Star Wars Outlaws devs “hyper conscious” of Ubisoft’s style but Massive is “different”

We don’t have long to wait now before we can start speeding after the Star Wars Outlaws achievements, and details are emerging thick and fast ahead of the open-world Star Wars game’s launch on August 30. We had the chance to check out gameplay to see how Star Wars Outlaws combines stealth, spaceships, and speeders for an enticing open world, and now, Massive Entertainment has shared more info on the game’s crime syndicates, and how Massive has “always been different” but that the Star Wars Outlaws team is “hyper conscious of the Ubisoft house style.”Star Wars Outlaws has “padawan/master relationships” with experts instead of skill trees and upgrade trees If you were curious about how much Star Wars Outlaws will resemble other Ubisoft games, an interview with GamesIndustry.biz sees creative director Julian Gerighty explaining how the team is “hyper conscious of the Ubisoft house style” but that “Massive has always been different. The Division and The Division 2 were different. Originally Massive was an independent studio, then an Activision studio, so it has always thought very differently. The DNA of Massive is quite unique from Ubisoft. But there are so many great lessons to be learned by the Ubisoft way of making games.” Interestingly, Gerighty says that “Star Wars itself suggested some different ways of doing things,” with the example that “instead of having a skill tree and a upgrade tree like a traditional game, here you seek out experts, to create this padawan/master relationship in the world, which will lead you on adventure in order to upgrade your character. Everything is ingrained in people and the world.”Meanwhile, an IGN First piece has shared a wave of new info about the crime syndicates of Star Wars Outlaws, with developer commentary. The Hutt Cartel is shown with some of its key members, including Bib Fortuna, Salacious Crumb, and of course the leader, Jabba the Hutt. “The idea with the Hutts is really what you see is what you get,” states narrative director Navid Khavari. “They aren’t afraid to use force, they take what they want and they’re just incredibly powerful.” We often associate the Hutts with Tatooine, but in Outlaws we’ll apparently find the Hutts elsewhere too — Jonkers says “All the syndicates have power that goes beyond the planet where they’re from.”Then, led by Gorak, there’s the Pyke Syndicate, which is “incredibly wealthy and powerful” at the time of Star Wars Outlaws, according to Khavari. “We sort of center around their underboss, Gorak, who is very much in charge of Pike operations on the moon of Toshara. And so while that is under Imperial control, just like the rest of the galaxy, we get to see the corrupt side of that because the Pykes have worked out a deal with the Empire there, where they get to do what they need to do and the Empire always gets its cut.” As for their appearance, while the Hutts apparently have the “most dirt and wear and tear” on their clothes, the Pykes love jewellery and riches.As for the Crimson Dawn, it seems less is known about this organisation at the time of Star Wars Outlaws than the other syndicates, but Khavari says “this period is very, very important in terms of the character Lady Qi’ra,” and that the Crimson Dawn’s focus is on “intelligence spreading.” IGN First’s look at the crime syndicates confirms that the Ashiga Clan, meanwhile, is a new creation of Massive and LucasFilm. The clan serves Queen Ashiga, and has its base on the planet of Kijimi (in the Samurai movie-inspired setting of Kijimi City), which we saw a glimpse of in recent Outlaws footage. According to associate art director Marthe Jonkers, “They’re completely new, but we did use an existing species called the Melitto for the Ashiga clan, and there are many different aspects of them… They don’t have eyes, so they use different senses and that was really interesting to design a whole syndicate that doesn’t use eyesight. So all of their designs have a lot of tactile elements.” The Ashiga Clan has “a strict code of honor… They’re very like a hive mind, and they have one very powerful queen who is in charge.”Interestingly, the key difference between those four syndicates and the fifth, the Zerek Besh, is that you can work on your reputation with the other four, while the Zerek Besh is apparently the main enemy in the game. According to Navari, “It’s an incredibly wealthy organization… They have their own plans and are more of a new player to the galaxy and the syndicates.” Kay is “on the run from them, and from Sliro. They are actively hunting her down and she’s using the other syndicates to kind of get what she needs to pull off a heist that’s going to secure her freedom from them.”If you ever got tired of the almost endless open worlds of Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, meanwhile, you might be pleased by Gerighty’s recent comments about how they “don’t want things to be just big for big sake” with Star Wars Outlaws. Indeed, Star Wars Outlaws’ speeders let you get across some planets in less than five minutes. If you’re looking for more info on the game, don’t forget to check out everything we know about Star Wars Outlaws!



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