Star Wars Outlaws' directors discuss the technical demands of its seamless open world: "There's a reason why very few games do this"

Star Wars Outlaws screenshot showing Key Vess and Nix navigating a large warehouse
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Star Wars Outlaws will be the first ever "seamless" open-world game to be set in the iconic galaxy far, far away, and as developer Massive tells us in our Star Wars Outlaws Big Preview, the ambitious project has been more than worth the hardships.

"If you ask me, it's all in a PowerPoint and magically happens," jokes creative director, Julian Gerighty, of the undoubtedly challenging processes that have been undertaken to shape Star Wars Outlaws into a seamless open-world – one that spans multiple planets, at that. "But if you ask the tech team, it's a big challenge. There's a reason why very few games do this – it's tricky."

Game director Mathias Karlson is able to speak more closely to these technical demands. "You'll see a lot of pride in the team, being able to offer that scale. Not just in scale, but I mean in experience." 

Karlson goes on to describe how this fluid, uninterrupted exploration might feel to move through as a player. You could "literally be sitting, playing Sabacc – you know Star Wars poker – in a cantina in a little town, walk outside, jump on your speeder, drive across a whole world, get in your ship, take off, explore space, hyperdrive to a different one and land again – all seamlessly. It's a fantasy fulfilment we're very proud of," he finishes. 

With no loading screens to break the flow of our intergalactic adventures and all those Red Dead Redemption 2 comparisons floating around, Star Wars Outlaws is sounding more and more like one of the most compelling open-world games of 2024.

Star Wars Outlaws is set to launch on PC and current gen consoles on August 30.


From Pax Romana to Assassin's Creed Shadows, here's all the upcoming Ubisoft games to keep an eye on in 2024.

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Jasmine Gould-Wilson
Staff Writer, GamesRadar+

Jasmine is a staff writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London in 2017, her passion for entertainment writing has taken her from reviewing underground concerts to blogging about the intersection between horror movies and browser games. Having made the career jump from TV broadcast operations to video games journalism during the pandemic, she cut her teeth as a freelance writer with TheGamer, Gamezo, and Tech Radar Gaming before accepting a full-time role here at GamesRadar. Whether Jasmine is researching the latest in gaming litigation for a news piece, writing how-to guides for The Sims 4, or extolling the necessity of a Resident Evil: CODE Veronica remake, you'll probably find her listening to metalcore at the same time.

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