Paris: Laser pistols loaded, hover bikes revved up, lizard-faced aliens in the crosshairs -- the latest "Star Wars" video game hits the shelves on Friday with its French publisher, Ubisoft, in need of a rescue mission. Or at least a new hope. "The game maker has rolled out its priciest promotional campaign for "Star Wars Outlaws", after a topsy-turvy period that saw it slip into the red in 2022-2023 before returning to profit last year.
"Ubisoft is a bit at a crossroads," said Charles Louis Planade, director of international operations at Midcap Partners advisory firm. The firm has launched plenty of games recently and "there haven't been any big failures but there haven't been any big successes either", he told AFP. The French firm has announced dozens of job losses this year alone as it struggles with an industry-wide downturn.
The lockdowns caused by the Covid pandemic led to a boom in video game sales, player numbers and engagement -- and with it came a flood of investment. But despite many firms continuing to make healthy profits, tech investors are looking elsewhere for quick returns, particularly to artificial intelligence or defence products. The slump has left Ubisoft and its competitors in need of hits.
And Ubisoft is not stinting on the hype around "Outlaws", developed for more than four years by its Swedish subsidiary, Massive Entertainment. The group's first foray into the universe created by George Lucas, "Outlaws" is an open-world game featuring Kay Vess, a you.