Star Wars Theory via Star Wars Theory YouTube

YouTuber Star Wars Theory revealed that he rejected an offer from Ubisoft and its partners to promote the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws game from Massive Entertainment.

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

In a recent video upload to his channel, Theory stated, “At the end of the day, yeah, they did reach out. We were potentially going to do something. I gave them an exorbitant amount of money. I was like, ‘Well, you need to give me this, and look, there’s going to be a ton of things in the contract that will not bind me to any sort of tailoring of what I need to or don’t need to say about this game.”

He continued, “If it’s complete ass, I’m going to be totally candid about that. And so at the end of the day, nothing was signed. Nothing was done. And I’m happy about that because the game looks like absolute s**t. It looks like garbage.”

He later reiterated, “Yeah, we were in talks They did reach out, surprisingly. I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I spoke to my network and that he was the middle man and that was it. And I made him know for sure, I’m like, ‘Look, like I ain’t going to play nice, man. Like if it’s, you know, a certain way, I’m going to tell you how I feel about it.’ They know how I am anyways.”

“In the end, I didn’t sign anything. I didn’t conform. I didn’t nothing. No matter what the compensations were … it’s my way or it’s not when it comes to my channel. I’ll never take a certain amount of money and then sign a contract which says I can say or can’t say something. Like screw that, dude. I don’t need that.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Later in the video, he reiterated again, “We didn’t sign anything because I want to be able to speak my mind fully and, you know, a) you’re going to have to pay me X amount and b) if it’s something I really like, for example, the next Fallen Order game, I’ll do it for free. But if it’s something that I just don’t really care about already, I’ll need a monetary compensation and then the contract will be amended to essentially, ‘I say whatever I want however I want.’ Which no one’s going to really want that.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Theory’s revelation that Ubisoft and its partners contacted him to promote Star Wars Outlaws comes in the wake of a report from German YouTuber Cyberpunk 20xx who discovered multiple YouTubers and influencers were influenced by Ubisoft as part of the company’s largest marketing campaign in its history.

As detailed by Cyberpunk 20xx. part of the company’s biggest marketing campaign ever was flying out YouTubers and influencers to Los Angeles to give them four hours with the game. He 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 detailing that 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

Cyberpunk 20xx 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

This investigation from Cyberpunk 20xx came 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 Star Wars Theory rejecting Ubisoft’s offer to promote Star Wars Outlaws?