Category: Video Games

It says something about the state of a video game series when lots of fans are happy the next game is coming later than expected. That’s what happened this week in the Pokémon community, after Game Freak and The Pokémon Company revealed Pokémon Legends: Z-A is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2025. Many trainers — myself included — let out a huge sigh of relief after learning that Pokémon is taking a much-needed break in 2024, ending a streak that lasted eight consecutive years of new mainline content.

Since 2016, Pokémon’s release schedule has looked like this:

• 2016: Sun & Moon
• 2017: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon
• 2018: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee!
• 2019: Sword & Shield
• 2020: Sword & Shield DLC
• 2021: Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl
• 2022: Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet
• 2023: Scarlet & Violet DLC

It’s been a crazy cadence of video game launches with absolutely no time to breathe, and the signs of unsustainability have been showing for multiple years at this point. 2022 alone saw two hugely ambitious Pokémon games come out of Game Freak. And while I absolutely adore Legends: Arceus’ spin on the Pokémon formula, and I respect Scarlet & Violet for shaking things up in a big way, all of the aspirations and innovations were significantly overshadowed by low-quality graphics and — in Scarlet & Violet’s case — unacceptable technical performance. Scarlet & Violet’s issues brought it to the point where Nintendo shared an apology, which you almost never see from the company. I’ve seen a lot of black-text-on-yellow-background apologies in the last several years but I never expect to see it from Nintendo.

I don’t mean to sound like a Pokémon hater – I love Pokémon, or at least I want to love Pokémon again. But it’s been hard watching Game Freak struggle to transition to home console development during the Switch generation and the way I see it, it’s left with basically two choices: scale the ambition back or take more development time to release fewer games. And given that Pokémon is already describing Legends: Z-A as “an ambitious new entry”, it seems it’s opting for the latter.

Granted, all we know is that Legends: Z-A is coming sometime in 2025. That could very well end up being early in the year (Remember, Legends: Arceus launched in January 2022), and then all the praise I’m giving The Pokémon Company and Game Freak will be moot. An early 2025 release would equal a three-year turnaround since Arceus, which is pretty standard for Game Freak. Gen 5 (2010), Gen 6 (2013), Gen 7 (2016), Gen 8 (2019) and Gen 9 (2022) all had three-year gaps in between. So I’m sincerely hoping the generic 2025 release window and the fact the announcement trailer didn’t actually show any gameplay means the developers and publisher are taking the Scarlet & Violet criticism seriously, and we won’t see Legends: Z-A until later in 2025.

So I’m thrilled Pokémon is taking a break in 2024, and I’m excited that Game Freak is returning to the Legends subseries. But we really know very little about Legends: Z-A, so let’s tackle some other big questions brought on by this announcement.

What Does the “Legends” Branding Actually Mean?

Depending on the day, I sometimes call Pokémon Legends: Arceus my favorite Pokémon game of all time. I fell in love with the revamped focus on catching and collecting Pokémon, and it solidified for me that a Pokémon game revolving around “Gotta catch ‘em all” is more compelling than “I wanna be the very best.” I know that’s an unpopular take, and I understand that the main series isn’t going anywhere, but I was thrilled when Legends: Z-A’s announcement confirmed that Arceus wasn’t just a one-off experiment.

But from the little we know about Z-A, it’s hard to determine if this is really a sequel to Legends: Arceus at all. We know Z-A will take place entirely within the Kalos region’s Lumiose City, and “urban redevelopment” has been teased as Z-A’s theme. Both of those elements are significantly at odds with Legends: Arceus, which was about exploring nature in wide, open areas.

So it’s possible that each entry in the Pokémon Legends series will be its own distinct thing, and the new mechanics I loved in Arceus might not necessarily translate to Z-A. Maybe the Pokémon Legends branding just means a mainline game developed by Game Freak that takes a look at a region years before the modern day Pokémon games, while avoiding the traditional Pokémon formula of gym badges and the Elite Four. Or, maybe Z-A still could incorporate Arceus’ catching mechanics while taking place in the big city. Time will tell but either way, I’m incredibly happy Game Freak is taking yet another crack at approaching Pokémon from a new angle.

What About Unova?

I placed my bet that the next mainline Pokémon game would return to Unova, the setting of Gen 5’s Black & White. Instead, Legends: Z-A is skipping Gen 5 and jumping straight to the region from Gen 6’s X & Y, and in a weird roundabout way giving us the Pokémon Z version we never got. Game Freak is breaking the pattern of its Pokémon remakes and I can’t help but wonder if there is a plan for Gen 5 remakes.

The Pokémon Company outsourced Gen 4 remakes Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl to developer ILCA and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s planning to assign a Black & White remake to a separate studio at some point, ILCA or otherwise. It’s impossible to say if something like that is already in development or not, but I have a good feeling that we will still end up seeing a return to Unova sometime in the next few years.

No, Not Everything Is a Nintendo Switch 2 Hint

We’re only in March and I’m already exhausted from all the Nintendo Switch 2 speculation we’ve endured this year. The internet will seemingly take any little thing and use it to fuel the Switch 2 fire, even in cases where there’s absolutely no reason to.

When it came to the Legends: Z-A trailer, the internet latched onto wording that said Legends: Z-A will launch “simultaneously” worldwide in 2025 for Nintendo Switch “systems”. Some people took this as a hint that Legends: Z-A will release as a cross-gen title on both Switch and Switch 2, and I’d really like to pump the brakes on that.

There’s just no way Nintendo or The Pokémon Company would let any wording confirming Switch 2 slip into its marketing before it has officially announced its next hardware. Nintendo is incredibly careful about its messaging and I assure you this isn’t some slip-up or cryptic hint. And Nintendo always refers to the Switch, OLED, and Lite as the “Nintendo Switch family of systems” or “Nintendo Switch systems”, so that word choice is in no way hinting at unannounced hardware. The Pokémon Twitter account used the exact same wording when talking about Detective Pikachu Returns, which already launched on Nintendo Switch systems last year.

The great detective is back on the case! 🔎 #DetectivePikachuReturns is coming to Nintendo Switch systems on October 6, 2023.https://t.co/OQrBueF6Ap pic.twitter.com/i4aQLAl0ns

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) June 21, 2023

The 2025 release timing really tells us nothing about Nintendo’s next generation plans either way. Pokémon notoriously waits a year or two before transitioning to Nintendo’s new hardware. The 3DS launched in March 2011 and we didn’t see the first mainline 3DS Pokémon games until Fall 2013. For a more recent example, the Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017 and Pokémon didn’t make an appearance until Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! in Fall 2018.

I think the more interesting discussion surrounds what Legends: Z-A’s 2025 release window means for Nintendo’s Fall 2024 release calendar. If recent reports are accurate and Switch 2 isn’t coming until next year, the remainder of Nintendo’s 2024 is looking pretty light. Pokémon is basically always a staple of Nintendo’s holiday lineup and I was expecting nothing different in 2024. But it’s now looking like Pokémon will miss this holiday, leaving me to wonder what Nintendo will fill that gap with. Is it finally time for Metroid Prime 4 or Wind Waker and Twilight Princess? Or will Nintendo pull out something completely new and unexpected? We’ll have to wait and see, but I can tell you for certain Nintendo has at least one unannounced game in its back pocket for this holiday season, and I can’t wait to learn what it is.

What do you think of Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Let us know in the comments.

Logan Plant is IGN’s Database Manager, Playlist Editor, and frequent Super Ninfriendo on Nintendo Voice Chat. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Star Wars Outlaws is billed as the franchise’s first-ever open-world game. From the makers of The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Outlaws tells a scoundrel story that explores the depths of Star Wars’ underworld between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

In anticipation of Ubisoft’s big Star Wars game, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Star Wars Outlaws.

Jump to:

• Release Window
• Story Details
• Gameplay
• Development

Star Wars Outlaws Trailer

Ubisoft has released two official trailers for Star Wars Outlaws. The most substantial of which is a 10-minute gameplay trailer revealed last June. Check it out below:

Star Wars Outlaws Release Window

Star Wars Outlaws has an official release window of 2024. It will be released sometime between April and December 2024, according to Ubisoft’s most recent earnings report.

Star Wars Outlaws Platforms and Price

Star Wars Outlaws will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Ubisoft Connect). Ubisoft has not announced a price for Outlaws, though $70 is a safe assumption considering its scope and Ubisoft’s pricing for recent AAA games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Star Wars Outlaws Story

Plot and Characters

Star Wars Outlaws tells the story of Kay Vess and her axolotl-like companion Nix attempting “one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen.” It’s a scoundrel story that aims to emulate the adventures of Han Solo or Jack Sparrow while being “a little bit more relatable,” according to creative director Julian Gerighty. “More of a rookie, a petty thief, who ends up in a situation that’s much bigger than they ever expected,” he said.

Here’s the official synopsis from Disney and Ubisoft:

“Experience the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Explore distinct planets across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, an emerging scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.

“If you’re willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity.”

The decision was made to set Outlaws between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (the second and third films in the original trilogy) because it’s a time when “the underworld is thriving.” Gerighty explained: “When we were starting off the discussions with Lucasfilm, it was very clear that the one-year period between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, that’s where the Rebels aren’t part of the picture. The Empire’s taking more and more control, but the syndicates, they’re taking more power, they’re exploiting all of these weaknesses. So it really is a moment where the underworld is thriving and there’s no better situation for an established or a rookie scoundrel to cut their teeth than this particular moment.”

Kay Vess is voiced by Humberly González (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Ginny & Georgia). Her alien companion Nix is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker (Star Wars: The Bad Batch, American Dad). The full cast has not been revealed, though we know Outlaws will include characters both new and old. Among the old is Jabba the Hutt, who Massive confirmed will assign Kay missions from his palace on Tatooine. Among the new is the battle droid ND-5 (voiced by Jay Rincon), who fought in the Clone Wars before taking up a life in the underworld.

Locations and Map Size

Star Wars Outlaws’ open world is spread across multiple “handcrafted” planets of “manageable” sizes. The planets (final number TBA) “could be [equivalent to] two to three zones” in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, according to Gerighty. As the director noted, this is a “crude analogy” as the regions of Odyssey’s Greece range in size, though it should be taken to mean the planets will not be near-endless areas filled with procedurally generated content.

The planets in Outlaws will adhere to Lucasfilm’s “80/20” rule of location design: 80% familiar, 20% alien or fantastical. Gerighty explained how Massive designed its version of Tatooine around this philosophy: “We start off with a biome, in this case, southeast African biomes as an inspiration, and then you put a twist on it to make it feel a little bit alien. If you think of the first shots, maybe not the first shots, but the first the shots of Tatooine. Beautiful, recognizable architecture, but two suns. For us, it’s having this huge mountain, and carved into it into the amberine of the mountain, the crystalline substance is a city, and these outcroppings of orange, very reflective material. That’s what brings the really alien nature to it. Familiar but fresh.”

Despite Massive’s dose of originality, Tatooine in Outlaws will be informed by the rich history of Star Wars films. “If you close your eyes and give people a choice to go anywhere in Tatooine?” Gerighty said. “Mos Eisley. And specifically one watering hole in Mos Eisley. The opportunity is that you can see all the nooks and crannies. This concept of virtual tourism is important to us. If you’ve ever wondered the distances from the moisture farms to the cantina? We have an experience for you.”

Another location Massive has detailed is the previously unexplored moon Toshara. Inspired by East African savannas, Toshara is home to “lots of wide, open plains” — a perfect playground for Kay’s speeder. It’s described as a “hive of scum and villainy” where players can explore the scoundrel lifestyle.

Other locations glimpsed in trailers include Kijimi, home to a hive-mind syndicate based on the Medlitto species called the Ashiga Clan; the humid jungle planet of Akiva; and Cantonica, home to the infamous casino city Canto Bight.

Game Length

While Ubisoft has not revealed how long it’ll take to complete Star Wars Outlaws, two key developers have commented on their desire to avoid making it “too big” — a common criticism for recent Ubisoft open-world games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. “Too big,” according to Gerighty and narrative director Navid Khavari, “is a game that people don’t manage to play, enjoy, and finish.”

Gerighty added: “Our objective is to really get people into a very dense, rich adventure, open world adventure that they can explore at their own rhythm. So it is absolutely not a 200- or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG. This is a very focused action-adventure RPG that will take people on a ride and is very manageable.”

Star Wars Outlaws Gameplay

Combat

Star Wars Outlaws is played from a third-person perspective. On the ground, players can expect hand-to-hand combat, gunplay, and stealth sequences. While aboard your ship, The Trailblazer, Outlaws provides opportunities for intimate dogfights with TIE fighters and larger-scale battles against massive vessels. More on space combat below.

As for your companion, Nix appears able to distract enemies, retrieve weapons, press buttons/pull switches, and attack guards by pressing RB/R1 and highlighting the desired action.

Exploration and Traversal

The open world of Star Wars Outlaws will be traversed on foot, atop your speeder, and aboard your ship. One of the most impressive things we’ve seen from Outlaws is the seamless nature in which you’ll be able to move across these three modes of traversal; Kay can go from foot to speeder to space without any cuts to black or obvious loading screens.

The planets of Outlaws can be navigated most efficiently using Kay’s speeder, which the dev team describes as “motocross in the sense of making the travel really fun, thrilling, full of tricks, speed chases, that type of thing.” As evidenced in the gameplay trailer, you’ll be able to shoot while riding using a slow-motion targeting system reminiscent of Red Dead’s Dead Eye.

There also appears to be some on-foot platforming, as we’ve seen Kay climb atop boxes and rappel down ropes using her grappling hook.

As for how Ubisoft has designed the open world to be explored, Khavari said the goal is to “make sure that the player organizes their experience according to their desires.” The team wants to avoid the Ubisoft open-world critique of maps crowded with icons that lead to repetitive activities. The goal here is to create worlds “so dense and so rich with different distractions that we won’t have to rely on so many UI indications for them,” he said.

Spaceship Combat

While aboard the Trailblazer, Kay will get into dogfights with hostile spacecraft. Dogfighting is made “as accessible as possible because movement in a whole full-on 360-degree environment is quite challenging,” said Gerighty. Massive hopes to accomplish this by slowing down the pace of dogfights and providing players with a chase cam control that allows enemy ships to be chased automatically so you can focus solely on aiming your shots.

In addition to being a vessel for space exploration and deep-space combat, the Trailblazer serves as a sort of home base for Kay. While roaming the ship on foot, you’ll be able to speak with other characters and explore the mysteries of the ship’s history.

Reputation Systems

There are two important systems around player behavior in Star Wars Outlaws: Reputation and Wanted. Massive says these two systems will be at play within every location, as they designed each with consideration for the presence of the Empire and the various crime Syndicates.

The Reputation system applies to Kay’s relationships with Syndicates. If Kay fosters trust with Syndicates, she can expect better contracts, cheaper store prices, and access to new territories. Should she fall out of favor with one, she can expect to be hunted. “It’s all about playing the Syndicates off one another, making choices, dilemmas in terms of how you hand in a quest, that type of thing,” said Gerighty.

The Wanted system, meanwhile, pertains to Kay’s relationship with the Empire. The Empire will put the Wanted tag on Kay when she acts against their wishes. In one example, we see Kay refuse to pay a bribe to an Imperial officer, resulting in a high-speed chase that follows the fugitive from land to space.

RPG Elements

Outlaws features some light RPG elements, such as an upgrade system that allows you to bolster Kay’s gear, from improvements to her speeder bike to new modules for her blaster. There will also be customization options for Kay’s speeder and spaceship.

There will be dialogue choices to make as Kay. This system was implemented to enhance the experience of role-playing as a scoundrel in the world of Star Wars, Gerighty told IGN.

Star Wars Outlaws Development

Development of Star Wars Outlaws is led by Massive Entertainment, the Ubisoft-owned studio responsible for The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Massive is supported by Ubisoft Annecy, Bucharest, Chengdu, Milan, Montpellier, Paris, Shanghai, Toronto, Redlynx, and Stockholm. It’s being developed using Massive’s in-house Snowdrop game engine.

Outlaws was announced in early 2021, signaling the end of EA’s exclusive hold on the Star Wars video game license, before being properly revealed at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase. According to Disney’s Sean Shoptaw, the inception of Massive’s Star Wars game came during a meeting between the two companies to discuss Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Key developers include game director Mathias Karlson (The Division 2), creative director Julian Gerighty (The Division 2), narrative director Navid Khavari (Far Cry 6), art and world director Benedikt Podlesniggand (The Division 2), and lead writer Nikki Foy (Far Cry 6).

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.