'Star Wars Outlaws' will be a "manageable size", not a "200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG."
In an interview with IGN, Creative Director Julian Gerighty explained that players can expect a "very dense, rich adventure, open-world adventure."
He said: "Too big is a game that people don't manage to play, enjoy, and finish. And our objective is to really get people into a very dense, rich adventure, open-world adventure that they can rhythm the way that they want."
Gerighty added: "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."
It was recently revealed that the game - which is due for release next year - won't procedurally generate new planets.
Developer Massive Entertainment and publisher Ubisoft previously hailed the upcoming title as the "first-ever open-world Star Wars game" when it was unveiled last month, and fans have been left speculating how big the world will be.
Speaking to Edge magazine, Gerighty said: "It's a crude analogy, but the size of one planet might be about [equivalent to] two of the zones in 'Assassin's Creed: Odyssey', for example.
"It could be two to three zones. But it's not, you know, this sort of epic 'the whole of England recreated' approach."
It's not been confirmed how many planets will feature in the game, but he did note that the team hasn't "procedurally generated an entire planet", which was an approach taken by 'Starfield'.
Instead, Gerighty explained that the planets will be "handcrafted" and "manageable" in size.
He also noted that the open-world approach is the player's freedom of choice.
He added: "We're really focusing on what 'open world' means to the player, which is full freedom of approach."