Jabba Is Not Just A Pre-Order Bonus In Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft Confirms

Ubisoft’s decision to keep a mission featuring everyone’s favorite intergalactic crime lord, Jabba the Hutt, behind the most eye-wateringly expensive versions of Star Wars Outlaws caused widespread internet panic in recent days. Given how much of the game’s promotion has featured the grumpy space worm, was the key character really to be locked behind golden doors in August’s action-adventure? It turns out, thank goodness, no, but this one specific mission is.

Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s foray into that galaxy far, far away, is a single-player open-world adventure set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Unlike so many recent Ubisoft games, its announcement caused enormous interest, and earlier this April a trailer finally revealed the full extent of what the game’s aiming to deliver.

Playing as plucky outlaw Kay Vess, you’re setting out to build a crew for one big score that could earn your freedom. With April’s new info, of course, came the opening of pre-ordering—a ludicrous practice in which people pay the full price for a game that isn’t finished yet, will almost definitely slip and miss its August 30 release date, and of course hasn’t been reviewed by anyone to check if it’s worth the money.

Triple-A pre-ordering, beginning in farce, has of course now embraced the full reaches of the ridiculous. So now it’s entirely normal for there to be three price tiers, the higher options coming with “exclusive” content, in-game dress-up options, and the tiresome ability to play a game a few days earlier than the ghastly hoi polloi. That’s all the case for Outlaws, including a mission entitled “Jabba’s Gambit,” which is only to be available for those buying the astonishing $110- or $130-priced versions for the game.

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Pre-order Star Wars Outlaws: Ubisoft | Best Buy

The ambiguity of the information released meant Ubisoft was flooded with panicked reactions that the publisher had kept an entire faction back for the richest players. We reached out, and Ubisoft got back to us to make clear that Jabba and the Hutt faction would still be a core part of the game for everyone.

“Jabba the Hutt and the Hutt Cartel are one of the main syndicates in Star Wars Outlaws,” an Ubisoft spokesperson told us by email. “[It] will be part of the experience for everyone who purchases the game, regardless of edition.”

The Jabba’s Gambit mission is instead considered part of the game’s season pass, included with the two super-expensive versions of the game, alongside two further DLC releases in the future, and a bunch of cosmetic guff.

“The ‘Jabba’s Gambit’ mission,” add Ubisoft, “is an optional, additional mission with the Hutt Cartel along Kay and Nix’s journey across the Outer Rim.”

So that’ll be included in the $110 and $130 versions, but what else causes the game’s price to almost double? The $130 Ultimate Edition also contains…a bunch more cosmetic guff! And a pdf of an art book. And that’s it. Both get you those three days of “early access,” the season pass, and the same pre-order “bonus” (some cosmetics) as the regular-price version.

There was a time when spending ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY DOLLARS on a video game would get you a beautiful box containing unique codes, splendidly glossy art books, and novelty toys or figurines. Now you get a book’s proof and pretend costumes for your game dollies. It’s embarrassing