Star Wars Outlaws Is The First Canonical Appearance Of A Video Game In The Franchise
Ubisoft says Star Wars Outlaws is the first open-world video game based on the popular sci-fi franchise. But it also offers another first: In a new trailer for Outlaws that debuted at Ubisoft Forward 2024, we see our first canonical example of an in-universe video game in Star Wars.
Star Wars Outlaws Lost Me With Its Story Trailer
Star Wars Outlaws was first shown by Ubisoft in 2023. The open-world action game stars scoundrel Kay Vess and her sexy robot friend ND-5 as they try to put together a crew for a large heist while also dodging the Empire and working with criminal syndicates to make some credits. The game is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, during a time when the Galactic Empire is at its strongest and most spread out. But who cares about all that? What I want to discuss is the big reveal that arcade games exist in the Star Wars universe.
The history of video games in Star WarsItās weird to think about, but even though there have been hundreds of Star Wars games released over the last few decades, weāve never seen a canonical depiction of a video game in the universe itself.
The Wookieepedia entry for āin-universe video gamesā is incredibly short and small. In a franchise where āDucksā have a few paragraphs and pictures in their wiki entry, it stands out that games are so underrepresented in the universe.
Technically, video games were mentioned once in Legends (the old canon from before Disney bought the franchise), in the 1993 Choose Your Own Adventure novel āJedi Dawn.ā They later showed up in two non-canon books for kids. And…thatās it. I guess you could say Dejarik, aka the holo-chess game seen in the Milennium Falcon is sort of a video game, but I consider that more an electronic tabletop thing. I donāt care if you use an iPad when you play Dungeons & Dragons, itās not a video game.
Gif: Ubisoft / Lucasfilm / Kotaku
So that means that the arcade machine we saw in the Star Wars Outlaws gameplay video on June 10 is the first canonical depiction of a video game on screen in the franchiseās nearly 50-year history. Thatās pretty wizard!
In a different video, Ubisoft says the arcade machine we see in Outlaws is Raven 6 and the devs described it as āa space shooterā that Kay Vess has played āfor years.ā Even more exciting, Ubisoft says youāll be able to find other arcade games around the galaxy and they are all playable, too.
And…wait. Oh, no. Now Iām realizing that if video games exist in Star Wars, that probably means annoying chuds who take them too seriously probably exist as well. Oh no. Star Wars contains gamers. Fuck. Shit. Welp, we had a good run, everyone.
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