A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

A new investigation into Ubisoft’s marketing campaign for Star Wars Outlaws reveals the company buttered up YouTubers and influencers with trips to Disneyland and boat tours before giving them access to four hours of gameplay footage.

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

German YouTuber Cyberpunk 20xx discovered multiple YouTubers and influencers revealed how they were actually influenced by Ubisoft as part of the company’s largest marketing campaign ever.

First, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that the company was rolling out its largest marketing campaign ever for Star Wars Outlaws. During a recent earnings report call, Barclay’s Nick Dempsey asked, ““When I look at the guidance for Q2 and if I assume something similar for back catalog in Q2 as Q1 kind of getting to €200 to €230 million, that sort of range. For the new release Star Wars Outlaws, when I look at the $70 price and then assuming what you might get from it, I’m getting to around 5 million units, something in that sort of bracket. First of all, where could I be going wrong with that thinking? Secondly, are you just being pretty conservative in your guidance because I guess given the interest in that game we might have thought it would be more than 5 million units?”

Guillemot replied, “We can’t comment on the very numbers you are quoting. But what we have factored in is a strong launch for Star Wars Outlaws that reflects the fact that it is among the most awaited games of the industry this year and a really strong, positive community sentiment. And also, the fact, that we are coming with the biggest marketing campaign ever, so far, for [an] Ubisoft game. So that’s what we’ve been factoring in the second quarter.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Part of that “biggest marketing campaign ever” was flying out YouTubers and influencers to Los Angeles to give them four hours with the game. Cyberpunk 20xx revealed that one of his fellow German YouTubers Kartoffel Konig confirmed the claim that it was the biggest marketing campaign ever.

As translated by YouTube Kartoffel Konig stated, “We are with the largest marketing campaign ever for a Ubisoft game. And I can definitely confirm the last part as I was invited by Ubisoft to come to Los Angeles and play in the Star Wars Outlaws event. The location was really polished up, and there was a day in Disneyland and something like that.

Konig continued, “So Ubisoft spent a lot on that.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Next, Cyberpunk 20xx shared footage from British influencer and YouTuber LouiseJulie, who revealed she was brought to Los Angeles by Ubisoft early and was taken on a boat tour that she claims was “originally a whale tour to see if we could spot any whales.”

She added, “So, basically they invited a bunch of UK creators who got there early because our flights were booked early because it’s a very long travel time. It was like a 12-hour journey.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Cyberpunk 20xx also confirms that Ubisoft was indeed paying for these international and domestic flights for YouTubers and influencers.

He cited a post from Chewy which, states, “Ubisoft and Star Wars flew me out to California to play Star Wars Outlaws, interview the Game Director and Lead Writer, and meet the cast! I am beyond grateful for this opportunity. VIP tour of Disneyland tomorrow!”

As noted, it’s another individual noting Ubisoft paid to take these YouTubers and influencers to Disneyland as well.

Chewy_Live_ on X

Another influencer was also reportedly given a Nix plushie and was flown out as well.

Tofu_gamess wrote, “Had a BLAST (hehe) experiencing Star Wars Outlaws at the preview event this week! Thank you Ubisoft for the Nix plushie and for flying me out for all the festivities!”

tofu_gamess on X

Not mentioned in Cyberpunk 20xx’s video, but TheStarWarsHQ revealed they made lightsabers during the Disneyland VIP experience.

He wrote, “Built an epic lightsaber at Galaxy’s Edge yesterday with fellow Star Wars Outlaws content creators and explored the park. It was an absolute blast!”

theStarWarsHQ on X

Of note, Cyberpunk 20xx notes that Louise Julie has denied being paid by Ubisoft to promote the game despite being flown to Los Angeles, given a VIP experience to Disneyland, taken on a whale sighting tour, and being schmoozed at the actual Star Wars Outlaws event.

On her video of the actual event where she praises the game, Julie pinned the following comment, “PSA: I was not paid by Ubisoft or anyone else to make this video. I was given the opportunity to record content however it was fully my own choice to make and share content based on it. The only money I make from this content is from YouTube views. There is no ‘shilling’ or hidden agenda’s involved.”

LouiseJulie YouTube

The YouTuber also notes that Ubisoft has held at least two of these big events and he cites Mirandalorian who revealed she was invited to two events, one in June and another in July.

She posted on X, “Ubisoft invited me out for another INCREDIBLE week in Cali.. and they know how to party. We played a 4 hour demo of Star Wars Outlaws, I adopted my own little Nix, and hung out with so many amazing people. More pics coming soon!”

In a response to another user she confirmed it was her second trip, “I know right! I couldn’t believe it either! I’m still not over the jetlag from my last trip!”

Mirandalorians on X

Ubisoft is not the only company to do this and is far from the first. And these campaigns do not always work. Maybe the biggest example is Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon and Prime Video paid for influencers to meet with the show’s creators and get exclusive first looks for the show at multiple events including one at Oxford and another at Majorca.

While there was initial interest in the show, a report from The Hollywood Reporter detailed that 63% of individuals who started watching the show failed to finish it. The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters reported, “While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders).”

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: Ismael Cruz Córdova (C) attends The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power SDCC Press Preview Event at Venue 808 on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios)

Of note, this investigation follows in the wake of German YouTuber channel PietSmiet, which has over 2 million subscribers admitting that it removed its Star Wars Outlaws preview video and the video itself was subject to a review process from a third party.

In a post to YouTube, PietSmiet shared that they removed their Star Wars Outlaws preview video from their channel. As translated by DeepL, one of the channel’s owners stated, “Hi, Peter here. We’ve taken the Star Wars video offline. Not because we wanted to sweep something under the carpet or anything. But because it should never have been published and we don’t want it on the channel. We’ll talk a bit more about this in the next PietCast episode. I’m sorry.”

PietSmiet community post on YouTube

This post followed a comment revealing that a third party agency had to approve of its Star Wars Outlaws preview video.

As translated by DeepL, the channel posted, “I completely understand the arguments that were made here and that was not correct. I had the opportunity to play the game for 4 hours and it was edited into over an hour of video. As part of the review process, the entire video was thrown back to us and an intermediary agency, not Ubisoft, asked for a lot of changes, especially to the wording at the beginning. But since I personally thought the game was really cool, I didn’t see that as a big problem. This was a huge miscalculation.”

It added, “Sorry, you don’t have to pre-order a game, of course. You can buy whatever you like with your money. I absolutely enjoyed the version I was shown. The process behind it was for the ass and I’m sorry that we didn’t print more against it, but let ourselves be beaten wide open. Big sorry for that.”

A comment from PietSmiet

What do you make of Ubisoft spending lavish amounts of money on YouTubers and influencers in the hopes of selling Star Wars Outlaws?