Star Wars Outlaws Slammed by Players Over Controversial Restriction

Star Wars Outlaws got a release date and a new story trailer this week. In the process, the new Ubisoft game generated some hype, but it also generated some reservations and some backlash. The former about the game itself, including its art direction and characters, while the latter has been about the prices of some of the game's special editions. There has also been some backlash over a restriction that has been put in place on physical copies of the game. 

Whether you buy a retail copy on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, you will need an Internet connection to install the game. This is not an issue for most looking forward to the game, but it will be an issue for some. In fact, it will prevent some from playing the game full stop. Meanwhile, even those who doesn't impact are calling it out as a bad practice. 

"It unfortunately seems that Ubisoft has started putting that 'comfortable not owning your games' into effect. There's no good reason why a single player game can't have a fully playable build on the disc, it's an artificial block just like the Avatar game to make sure you can't play without the patch, just purely out of malice," writes one Reddit user of the news. 

"As someone who buys exclusively digital, this is ridiculous that a physical disc requires an online connection to install," reads another comment. "Not everyone has reliable internet or unlimited data to work with."

For what it is worth, it is estimated that about 10 percent of new games have this requirement. And this number is only growing. As for why publishers are opting for the requirement, there are a few reasons. The chief reason is to ensure the game can't be played without a day one patch, which will this will most likely end up having, as it is increasingly common with major video game releases.

At the moment of publishing, Ubisoft has not commented on any of this backlash. We don't expect this to change for a handful of reasons, but if it does, we will be sure to update the story accordingly. In the meantime, for the latest coverage on the game, click here.