Ubisoft’s open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws didn’t make as much of a splash as some other games upon its 2024 release.
However, it’s recently found its way over to Switch 2, giving it a new chance to bask in the light of popular attention – especially when so few Switch 2 ports are surfacing due to a shortage of devkits.
Now, Ubisoft are looking to cement Outlaws’ new-found popularity by releasing a demo by the end of the year, allowing players to try before they buy.
Star Wars Outlaws Switch 2
Releasing on September 4th for the Switch 2, the port was well-received for its smooth performance – with experts at Digital Foundry praising the ray tracing and going as far as to call the port “extraordinary.”
This is good news for the game, not only because it’s receiving some strong positive attention that was lacking at the time of release, but also because other Switch 2 ports are often struggle more than their new-gen counterparts.
The early previews of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, for instance, cited a great many performance issues, especially when trying to play the game in handheld mode.
Star Wars Outlaws Sales
According to Ubisoft themselves, the game underperformed and did not meet sales targets.
The game wasn’t a complete flop – it was reported as having sold over one million copies in its first month – but this wasn’t enough to match the kind of reach that the game required to be considered a success.
Part of this might be due to both Star Wars franchise fatigue and a sense of overfamiliarity with Ubisoft’s open-world formula, though Assassin’s Creed: Shadows released in March 2025 and was said to have fared much better, matching Ubisoft’s sales expectations.
The Demo Strategy
While it might feel as though demos went out of fashion for a short time, they’ve recently made a return, and the thinking behind them is arguably sensible in a time when games cost so much more than they used to.
If you’re interested in a game, it’s much more of a risk to take a gamble on the £60-plus required to gain access than it is to download a free demo and simply see how much you enjoy it. In fact, this approach might even get players who had no interest in the game at all to try the demo out of curiosity, giving developers a chance to get their foot in the door.
