As the 2026 holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, one of the most ambitious Star Wars games in recent memory is suddenly a whole lot more tempting. The first-ever open-world Star Wars title, Star Wars Outlaws, has dropped its price to just $49.99 on PS5 and Xbox in the US, and a tidy £50 in the UK across major retailers ahead of Black Friday. If you’ve been sitting on the fence since its original release back in August 2024, now might just be the moment Kay Vess finally gets to sneak her way into your collection.
Developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, Outlaws dared to shake up the Star Wars game formula by putting players not in the boots of a Jedi or a skilled pilot, but in the scuffed boots of Kay Vess, a scrappy rogue just trying to carve out a better life on the wrong side of the galaxy. Along with her loyal merqaal companion Nix, Kay slinks through sprawling, grimy cities, dusty outposts, and — for the first time in a Star Wars game — genuinely open stretches of space that you can hop into, fly across, and get into dogfights in, all in real time. It’s the kind of seamless freedom that fans have been daydreaming about since the days of Shadows of the Empire.
Kay Vess doesn’t have the Force, and she sure doesn’t have a rebel fleet backing her up. What she does have is a blaster, a knack for sneaking through ventilation shafts, and a mind sharp enough to talk her way out of trouble — or into even more of it. The game leans heavily on a mixture of stealth, quick-draw combat, and decision-making that can ripple through the underworld. One minute you’re slicing a data port in an Imperial base, the next you’re distracted for forty minutes losing a small fortune in a game of Sabacc against a Besalisk who’s clearly counting cards. And that’s where Outlaws really shines — it’s packed with moments that feel personal and unscripted, like you’ve stumbled onto your own corner of a cantina story.
Let’s cut to the chase, though. This game hasn’t had the smoothest run. When it arrived a couple of years ago, reviews were, shall we say, all over the parsec. Critics praised the Sabacc mini-game so much that it practically became a standalone obsession, and the world design — oh, the world design — is frequently jaw-dropping, from the neon-drenched streets of Canto Bight to the windswept plains of Toshara, a brand-new moon created specifically for the game. But the cracks were there too. Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell famously put his finger on something that left a lot of Ubisoft fans scratching their heads: “The problem with Star Wars Outlaws … isn’t that it adheres too closely to a development approach akin to hoarding, but that it does the opposite, stripping away years of accumulated video game clutter.” By ditching the familiar map-marker buffet and the thick layer of open-world busywork that players had come to expect — and, honestly, enjoy — the game felt a little bare in places. Stripping away the formula, it turned out, was like lifting up the carpet and finding… well, a big old hole.
And you know what? That take aged both well and poorly. In the months after launch, Massive rolled out a string of updates that added more life to the outer rim: new missions, more dynamic faction events, and even a much-requested overhaul to the stealth mechanics that made Kay feel less like she was made of paper. By the time the “Crimson Dawn” DLC dropped in 2025, the galaxy felt fuller, meaner, and way more fun to get lost in. It still doesn’t hold your hand with a thousand question marks, and I’ve got to say — I kind of love that about it now. There’s a quiet thrill in charting your own way from job to job, letting the story emerge from the chaos rather than chasing an icon on a minimap.
So here we are, two years and a bunch of patches later, staring down a price tag that feels just right. At $49.99, Star Wars Outlaws is no longer asking for a Jedi-like leap of faith with your wallet. It’s an invitation to a galaxy that’s rough around the edges, occasionally buggy in that endearing Ubisoft way, but so dripping with atmosphere that you can almost smell the engine grease and Corellian ale. Whether you’re a longtime fan who’s been waiting for the dust to settle, or a fresh scoundrel ready to make a name for yourself, this is one Black Friday deal that’s worth a hard look. Just watch your back in that Sabacc den — I’m pretty sure Nix is peeking at your cards.