KotOR - Remake Delayed Indefinitely

[Silver]

Bloomberg reports (subscription required) that the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake development has been stopped indefinitely with two directors let go following a bad demo review. Bosslevelgamer have summarised the Bloomberg news article.

...

Aspyr's studio heads told staff that the vertical slice wasn't where they wanted it to be and that the project would be paused, according to two people who were in the meeting. One person familiar with the discussions suggested that a disproportionate amount of time and money had gone into the demo and that the project's current course wasn't sustainable. Another point of contention may be the timeline. At the outset of development, Aspyr told staff and partners it would release the game by the end of 2022, according to two people familiar with production. Developers said a more realistic target now would be 2025.

The fate of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remains unclear. In May, Embracer announced that Saber Interactive would also join the project. Some at Aspyr believe that Saber, which has mainly been doing outsourcing work for the project, may take it over completely.

[...]

Schreier reports that a game demo was shown to Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC and Sony Group Corp. The KOTOR remake development team was excited and confident in the state of the game.

The following week, design director Brad Prince and art director Jason Minor were fired. Minor's Twitter is currently private, but the Bloomberg report suggests that his firing was not expected.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[JDR13]

Funny to see this right next to a newsbit speculating about a PC version...

*Edit* Ah ok, I see the other thread was a necro.

 

[Deleted member 18181]

...team was excited ...following week were fired...

 

[TheSHEEEP]

Seems like KotOR dodged a bullet, then.
Judging by some other "remakes".

 

[Redglyph]

They'll have more success with console games, no doubts. It seems to be their main experience.

Better no remake at all than a botched one.

 

[Andrew23]

Im indifferent towards the possible remake. Aside of being the only real Star Wars RPG, KOTOR did not bring anything to the table that would make it outstanding, at least in my eyes. Even at time of release I was only thrilled about Star Wars aspect of game (which is not small thing for fans). But other then that, it was another step in "consolification" of Bioware production.

 

[Telstar]

sigh...

 

[Couchpotato]

Yeah I had a feeling something like this would happen. As Aspyr has mostly done port jobs of someone else's work. They also had to redo the whole game for modern players.

Just once I want to play a new actual SP RPG Star Wars game. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was not an RPG either so spare me. It's defined as an action-adventure video game.

 

[JDR13]

Im indifferent towards the possible remake. Aside of being the only real Star Wars RPG, KOTOR did not bring anything to the table that would make it outstanding, at least in my eyes. Even at time of release I was only thrilled about Star Wars aspect of game (which is not small thing for fans). But other then that, it was another step in "consolification" of Bioware production.

I couldn't have said it better.

 

[mercy]

Same fate befell the amazing Stargate series and all its bombastic(a) followups(b), excepting abysmal Origins, which doesn't even deserve a mention / waste of words. Producers, filmmakers complained that they tried to revive the super-amazing Stargate series, but after casting and writing and shooting begin, - after a while - the entire project somehow collapsed on itself. Probably the "Hey! Let's Revive Stargate!"-producers hired similar Schlemiels to the scale of "two directors let go following a bad demo review."

 

[Couchpotato]

The codex shared this reddit screenshot of a deleted developer post.

 

[bjon045]

Turning an evil white man into an evil black woman seems an odd choice these days! Regardless, I am not that bothered by this announcement. I would have much preferred a completely new story/quest/characters etc.

Like what others have posted I found KotoR 1 to be competent but it didn't really shine. I can barely remember the story. I found KotoR2 more memorable and still remember a bunch of the characters and a good chunk of the overall story despite not playing it in over 10 years. I did like the lighsabers and becoming a Jedi though. From what I remember you started as one of 3 generic classes and then moved into Jedi class as the game progressed.

 

[Redglyph]

The codex shared this reddit screenshot of a deleted developer post.

So much for the dev team being excited about the state of the game.

If that's true, of course.

 

[Redglyph]

Im indifferent towards the possible remake. Aside of being the only real Star Wars RPG, KOTOR did not bring anything to the table that would make it outstanding, at least in my eyes. Even at time of release I was only thrilled about Star Wars aspect of game (which is not small thing for fans). But other then that, it was another step in "consolification" of Bioware production.

I was not convinced at the beginning since it was a console port, but as it turned out, I liked the story and some of the characters were good. So overall I enjoyed the game back then, and I would likely play a remake if it was good. But I completely agree that this first step away from a ruleset-first game was a little disappointing.

I wonder how they'd do it if it was today and BioWare was what it was back then. They'd probably go turn-based instead.

 

[Couchpotato]

Even more bad news, but might be good news as well.

KOTOR Reportedly Has a New Developer - Resetera

The highly anticipated remake of the video game Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has a new developer after a bumpy ride.

The project, formerly in development at Austin, Texas-based Aspyr Media, is now being led by one of Saber Interactive's Eastern European studios, according to a person familiar with the change who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Both developers are owned by the Swedish company Embracer Group AB, which obliquely referenced the pivot in a public statement last week. A representative for Embracer didn't immediately have a comment.

Embracer said it is not "expecting any material delays" due to the transition. But the game, announced during a PlayStation event last year, does not have a public release date and will likely take at least two more years to finish, people familiar with development said. Embracer's stock tumbled on Monday after lukewarm reviews of an upcoming game, Saints Row, and is down 28% this year.

Still, some close to the project said they are optimistic this will lead to a better product. Decision makers at Embracer and at publishers Sony Group Corp. and Walt Disney Co., both of whom have financial interests in the game, were displeased with progress under Aspyr, which ultimately led to the transition.

 

[DArtagnan]

This is one of the few remakes that I was actually really excited by - but things are sure looking grim.

Who knows, though.

I just need to forget it's a thing - and then, if I'm lucky, I'll be pleasantly surprised in a few years if something is finally released.

 

[JDR13]

I'm probably the outlier here, but I've had zero interest in this from the beginning. I just think there are so many better games that could be remade.

It's Star Wars though, so there's gonna be hype.

 

[Redglyph]

That confirms the suspicion some had last week when reading Embracer's financial results, which came at the same time as their new acquisitions. Resetera must be the last studio of the list whose name was kept secret ("another company within PC/Console gaming that, for commercial reasons, is not disclosed today").

 

[Couchpotato]

More bad news about the game.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Fans Fear PS5 Remake Has Been Canceled

After two years of silence, what's going on with Aspyr's KOTOR remake?

comicbook.com

Embracer & Sony Are Removing Every Trace of Knights of the Old Republic Remake They Can

It appears that Embracer and Sony Interactive Entertainment are scrubbing the internet clean of all traces of the Knights of the Old Republic remake that they can.

techraptor.net

Sony Deletes Mentions Of Troubled Star Wars: KotOR PS5 Remake, Hides Trailer [Update]

The game's reveal at a 2021 PlayStation Showcase is being nuked from the internet

kotaku.com

Given Embracer's current problems, a large project like this might be cancelled.

I guess there isn't a formal announcement yet though.

 

[Drithius]

While Aspyr did some work to update Kotor II for widescreen (though full details are nebulous to me), I'm not certain they would have been up to the task of a full-on remake for the original title. Still, I wouldn't put it past Disney to desire added foolishness instead of a 1:1 reboot.

Shame about the outright cancellation.