The journey to launch
As the world of Star Wars Outlaws, created by Massive Entertainment, opens up on a brand-new platform, we spoke with the teams behind the scenes at Ubisoft RedLynx and collaborating studios about this long-awaited launch.
Celine Pasula
”Congratulations to the team on this launch! It’s exciting to see players get to experience the game in a new way, docked or on the go, with the Nintendo Switch 2,” says Celine Pasula, Managing Director at Ubisoft RedLynx.
“This project has required expertise from many fronts. As a multiplatform studio, we’ve always been committed to delivering unforgettable gaming experiences across all screens – big and small – ensuring high-quality, platform- tailored gameplay that resonates with every player. It was a joy to bring our expertise to this project and introduce the world of Star Wars Outlaws to players on Nintendo Switch 2,” she adds.
Getting the chance to work with a brand-new platform was a welcome opportunity that continued the studio’s track record of tackling challenging technical projects across multiple platforms.
“Our goal was to deliver a native, authentic Star Wars Outlaws experience tailored to the platform, ensuring seamless usability and intuitive interaction for users,” Senior Producer Pasi Piispa tells us.
Screen size varies greatly between handheld and docked modes, which means the team had to put a lot of emphasis on optimizing the experience for different types of screens. This included enhancing UI readability and even incorporating touchscreen functionality – features that elevate the overall user experience.
“The project brought together experts from mobile, PC, console, and tech development to the team. This combination of expertise was definitely an advantage,” Pasi says.
“We established effective workflows and ensured everyone was aligned on our ‘North Star’: delivering a Star Wars Outlaws experience that feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch 2,” he adds.
Pasi Piispa
A project of this scale naturally required close collaboration across teams, studios, business units, and external partners. To fully grasp the rich world of Star Wars Outlaws created by Massive Entertainment, the design team conducted extensive research early in the project – simply understanding everything that exists in the world required time and close-knit collaboration with colleagues in Malmö.
“We needed to be immersed in the game to make smart decisions about scalability and optimizations,” Pasi tells us. “This launch was made possible not just by our team’s dedication, but also by the incredible collaboration with our partners.”
“Of course, we didn’t start from scratch here as it is a porting project. There are certain premises and ambitions that we’re working with – but on a new platform,” he says.
According to Pasi, everyone in the team should be proud of their achievement, bringing the vast world of Star Wars Outlaws to Nintendo Switch 2.
“Star Wars Outlaws is truly a beautiful game, and we made sure the experience translates on the Nintendo Switch 2. I can’t wait for players to dive in and explore it for themselves,” he concludes.
The technical expertise behind the experience
Bringing an experience of this size and quality from the big screens to a hybrid one, ensuring its ability to work both docked and on-the-go, is no easy feat. It requires significant optimization, technical refinement, and creative problem-solving to preserve the game’s visual fidelity and performance on a more compact and substantially different platform.
“Optimization always starts with research also on the technical side of things,” explains Jan Lönnberg, Lead Technology Programmer at Ubisoft RedLynx. “We need to understand which strategies and approaches are viable before we can define the technical scope.”
Jan Lönnberg
This early research phase was crucial in navigating the unknowns of a pioneering project.
Dmytro Miretskyi, Snowdrop Site Manager at Ubisoft RedLynx, agrees and adds: “Exactly – in a project like this, you can’t always predict the next phase in detail. But you can plan which areas to explore, and set a clear approach for the tasks ahead.”
At the core, this was a very technical project where the goal was to optimize the game to a new platform and ensure it runs smoothly.
But optimization wasn’t just about code.
“This was a deeply technical project, but also one that required close collaboration with content teams,” Jan says. “We focused on usability adjustments and performance, while ensuring that the core gameplay experience stayed true to its essence.”
Accessibility was also a key focus of the project: the team worked hard to ensure that Star Wars Outlaws can be enjoyed by as many players as possible on the Nintendo Switch 2, regardless of their individual needs or play styles.
“Our accessibility experts did fantastic work on ensuring that as many people as possible could enjoy the game,” Jan says. “Snowdrop enabled us to implement features like text-to-speech, which really enables more players to enjoy the experience.”
Dmytro Miretskyi
Powered by Snowdrop, Ubisoft’s in-house engine
Powered by Ubisoft’s proprietary Snowdrop engine, the project required deep collaboration between game developers and technical teams working with the engine. This included exchanging know-how and day-to-day collaboration throughout the project.
“It’s important that experts in game teams and engine teams work hand-in-hand throughout the different stages of a game project. Overall, I would say that we can achieve great results in both game and tech development by effective integration of teams,” Dmytro explains.
The experience of adapting Star Wars Outlaws for Nintendo Switch 2 has already influenced future projects, especially in how Snowdrop is used.
“We created a lot of valuable know-how during this process – knowledge we’re eager to share with others. We didn’t do this alone, and we won’t continue alone either. This was a team effort, involving incredibly talented people, all with deep expertise needed to cross the finish line.”
The project created a lot of references and solutions that other projects can utilize in their work in the future.
“This process could be described with a fitting metaphor as we’re in Finland: “The first skier breaks the trail, so the rest can glide behind,” Jan laughs.
One team with a shared vision
The nature of the project was truly collaborative, within expert teams, the project team, the collaborating studios, Ubisoft globally, extending to external partners.
“At many points, we were working as one unified team,” Dmytro reflects. “Snowdrop made this project possible, and we truly pushed the technical boundaries together. Thank you to everyone who contributed along the way.”
Marc Braun
In addition to Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft RedLynx, the project involved collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, Ubisoft studios in Germany and Romania, and the Snowdrop engine teams. One of the key contributors to the project collaborating with Ubisoft RedLynx was the Snowdrop game engine team from Germany.
“Porting a large, beautiful and already optimized game such as Star Wars Outlaws on a new portable device was a complex technical challenge, and certainly an interesting one!” says Marc Braun, Snowdrop Germany Site Manager & Platforms Domain Owner.
“This opens the door not only for Star Wars Outlaws, but also for future Snowdrop titles to reach a new audience. I would like to thank our Snowdrop team members here in RedLynx, Berlin, Düsseldorf and other Ubisoft studios around the world for this accomplishment!”
The Outer Rim awaits – even when on the road yourself
Star Wars Outlaws is now available on the Nintendo Switch 2 – are you ready to explore the Outer Rim in a new way?
Star Wars Outlaws™ for Xbox, PS5, PC, and More | Ubisoft (GB)