Ubisoft’s single-player Star Wars Outlaws will have a season pass, meaning players will have to pay more money to unlock a Jabba the Hutt mission.
Despite being a single-player affair, Ubisoft’s much-anticipated action sandbox Star Wars Outlaws will have a season pass. This is, as you’re probably aware, a polite term meaning that extra stuff is locked away behind a paywall.
In the case of Star Wars Outlaws, this extra stuff includes a mission featuring Jabba the Hutt – a character whose presence in the game has been heavily trailed since it was revealed last year.
On Ubisoft’s website, it plainly states that certain elements of the game – most prominently the Jabba’s Gambit mission – will only be accessible at launch for customers who buy the more expensive Gold or Ultimate editions. These cost £104.99 and £119.99 respectively.
“Play the exclusive Jabba’s Gambit mission at launch,” the site reads (as picked up by IGN). “Just as Kay is putting together a crew for the Canto Bight heist, she receives a job from Jabba the Hutt himself. Turns out that ND-5 owes Jabba a debt from years ago, and he has come to collect.”
The site describes Jabba’s Gambit as an “exclusive mission” and but one of several perks that purchasers of the season pass will receive; they’ll also get “two additional narrative expansions coming after launch.” It’s not clear whether Jabba’s Gambit or the other missions will be made available to purchasers of the £70 standard game at a later date; that it refers to the Jabba mission as “exclusive” suggests it’ll remain locked away for those customers at least for a while.
The player’s interactions with criminal organisations has long been described as a pivotal part of Star Wars Outlaws' action. Talking last year, creative director Julian Gerighty described this as “pivotal” and that it’s “all about spinning plates of working with one criminal syndicate to backstab the other, or backstabbing them both at the same time.”
It therefore follows that Star Wars fans would be particularly interested in the possibility of backstabbing the most famous gangster in its space fantasy universe. To then, one year later, announce that Jabba and a mission involving him will be locked away from all but the highest-paying customers sounds suspiciously like price-gouging.
Sensing this, Ubisoft has since come back with a statement, published by Eurogamer. The company says that Jabba the Hutt and his cartel will still appear in all versions of the game, but confirm that the specific Jabba’s Gambit mission (which they describe as ‘optional’) will be locked away to purchasers of the base game.
“To clarify, Jabba the Hutt and the Hutt Cartel are one of the main syndicates in Star Wars Outlaws and will be part of the experience for everyone who purchases the game, regardless of edition,” a Ubisoft rep said. “The ‘Jabba’s Gambit’ mission is an optional, additional mission with the Hutt Cartel along Kay and Nix’s journey across the Outer Rim. This mission will be available to those who purchase the season pass or an edition of the game which includes the season pass.”
Users who buy the £70 version of the game who decide they want a season pass after all – either because they’ve changed their minds or because they needed to wait for another payday before they could afford the extra money – will have just one option open to them. At present, Ubisoft writes, the season pass is “only available for pre-order with Gold or Ultimate edition,” or by signing up to the Ubisoft+ Premium subscription service. The latter costs £15 a month.
Star Wars Outlaws is out on the 30th August 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Because Ubisoft is keen to coax as many people as possible to pay more for broadly the same experience, purchasers of the Gold and Ultimate editions will get the game three days early on the 27th August. It’s the kind of greed that Jabba himself would probably approve of.
