‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ Remake Delayed Indefinitely After Video Game Studio Shakeup
Fans of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic who were excited for a remake of the 2003 classic role-playing game should be prepared for a long wait. The game is reportedly delayed indefinitely after recent personnel shakeups within its video game developer Aspyr Media.
According to Bloomberg, the development team on the project has experienced a shake-up as two directors on the title – art director Jason Minor and design director Brad Prince – were fired earlier this month. Throughout July, two studio heads at Aspyr have told employees that development on the title will be postponed as the company looks to sign new contracts and development opportunities. While the plan was originally to release the game as early as the end of 2022, it is now expected that the title will realistically be ready in 2025.
The game has been in the pipeline for three years thus far, and its first presentable demo – which Aspyr’s staff had been confident in – arrived in late June. A week after this demo was shown to potential developers, Aspyr suddenly and unexpectedly fired the aforementioned directors; the company felt that the overall progress on the demo had been somewhat unsatisfactory for the amount of time the game had been brewing, and that a disproportionate amount of development time was spent on the demo instead of the full game, something that was deemed unsustainable to its current developmental trajectory.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake is notably Aspyr Media’s first major original project, as the company is known for porting existing titles (many of which are video games from past console generations) to other consoles. A few months ago, it was revealed that Saber Interactive, a company owned by Aspyr’s parent company Embracer Group, would be joining to help the project; it is now internally speculated by Aspyr staff that they may lead the charge entirely after this creative shake-up. For now, the future for the game is uncertain.
The story of the original Knights of the Old Republic set players in the midst of a Republic/Sith conflict thousands of years before the events of the time of the Skywalkers, with the player character seeking to rescue Bastila Shan, a Jedi with the ability to turn the tide of battle, and take on the Star Forge, a factory with a strong enough output to bring the Republic to its knees. While all pathways set the player against Darth Malak, the apprentice of Darth Revan and the usurper of the Sith, players ultimately make a series of decisions that determine if they will fight to save the Republic or to take Malak’s place and rule the Sith. Without spoiling a game that’s nearly 20 years old now, the title has a very interesting twist to the concept of the “blank slate” protagonist commonly seen in RPGs that remains a narrative highlight across not only Star Wars games, but the genre as a whole.
Time will tell what the future holds for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake. We will keep you updated as more information surfaces.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
