Star Wars Outlaws Trailer: Be Kay, Do Crime

Though we mostly focus on film and televison here at Slash Film dot com (the clue's in the name), we do like to occasionally peek over into the video game realm — especially when a new "Star Wars" game featuring a furry pet axolotl gets announced. The cinematic trailer for "Star Wars Outlaws" was unveiled during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase today, introducing protagonist Kay Vess (Humberly González) and her "loyal companion" Nix (Dee Bradley Baker, the voice heard across the galaxy).

"Star Wars Outlaws" was developed by Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment, the game studio behind "Tom Clancy's The Division," and the press release boasts that it's the "first-ever open-world 'Star Wars' game." That has already raised a few eyebrows among long-time connoisseurs of "Star Wars" games, since "Star Wars: The Old Republic," "Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Jedi: Survivor," "Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga," and the "Knights of the Old Republic" games could all arguably be called "open-world." The pressure is on for "Outlaws" to offer a truly free-to-roam galaxy. Per the press release, the story...

...takes place in a time when the Galactic Empire relentlessly pursues the final defeat of the Rebel Alliance, and the criminal underworld is thriving. Kay will take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy's crime syndicates as she seeks the means to start a new life.

Hooray for space crimes! Check out the reveal trailer below.

It's difficult to get any insight into the gameplay from a fully pre-rendered cinematic trailer, but the synopsis suggests that "Star Wars Outlaws" will take a "Skyrim" approach to open-world gameplay: a linear collection of main storyline missions that you can freely ignore in favor of doing hours upon hours of side-quests. That would make it more open-world than, say, "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," which allowed free exploration of various planets to search for collectibles and pursue 100% completion, but didn't offer much outside the main mission beyond amassing a collection of ugly ponchos.

"Outlaws" also looks to set itself apart from existing "Star Wars" games by shifting the focus away from the war between the Rebels and the Empire. In the voiceover, Kay says that while the Empire is everywhere, "the world here belongs to the syndicates" — indicating that the game is set in the untamed planets of the Outer Rim. The galactic crime syndicates have primarily been explored in the "Star Wars" TV shows, with both the Pyke Syndicate and the Hutt Clan recently causing trouble in "The Book of Boba Fett." The glimpse of some poor soul frozen in carbonite and the bounty hunters searching for Kay are also reminiscent of "The Mandalorian" season 1.

It's possible, therefore, that we could get some cameos here; perhaps Kay could find herself fleeing from a younger Din Djarin or Fennec Shand. Failing that, at least there's an adorable little creature and a big robot friend to hang out with.

"Star Wars Outlaws" is set to launch on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC in 2024.