Knights of the Old Republicholds a special place in the hearts of many fans, which is obvious given the amount of art, cosplays, and fan creations that still revolve around The Old Republic and Revan. As such, when it was announced thatKOTORwas getting a PS5 timed-exclusive remake, the fandom went berserk. There were equal amounts of hype and patience on display from fans who had wanted this to happen for years, if not decades, in the following months. Their patience, however, was met with heartbreak.
To date, Embracer Group has yet to fully comment on theKOTOR Remakeor its status, but reports from reliable figures like Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier or Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb have painted an incredibly deflating image. The end result is thatKOTOR Remakehas entered 2024 no closer to release than it was in 2023, and it may have even taken quite a few steps back.
A Timeline of KOTOR Remake’s Troubled Development
TheKOTORRemake was announced in September 2021 with a simple visual ofDarth Revan, as well as a voiceover of Bastila Shan (reprised by Jennifer Hale). It was announced to be in development by Embracer Group’s Apyr in collaboration with Sony. Underneath this announcement was no doubt a herculean effort. Several former BioWare developers, several returning actors, a ground-up effort, and more were all confirmed for the title. Some rumors weren’t exactly what many fans well, such aschanges to the originalKOTOR’s combat, but it was a dream come true for many fans.
Months later, that dream could come crashing down as Schreier would report that theKOTOR Remakewas indefinitely delayed. Reportedly, Sony and Lucasfilm were not impressed by Aspyr’s vertical slide of the game, which ended with the firing of the game’s art director and design director. It was further indicated that Embracer Group took theKOTOR Remakeaway from Aspyr and gave it completely to Saber Interactive, which had been assisting the development. However, this would not be and still isn’t confirmed to be true. Come 2023, there was plenty of drama surrounding theKOTOR Remake’s trailer being hidden on YouTube, social media posts being removed, and more, which was supposedly due to a music license expiration. It wasn’t a good look, and it didn’t help the growing melancholy around the title.
The Latest Updates on the KOTOR Remake
Silence has practically all but defined Embracer Group and theKOTOR Remakein the years since its initial announcement. There is still very little said about theKOTOR Remakein any official capacity. Instead, the latest updates come from Schreier and Grubb. In November 2023, Grubb would discuss theKOTOR Remakeon an episode of Game Mess Mornings, where he would say, “This game is not being worked on right now. Just full stop. This game is not being worked on in any way, at any studio,” dashing any remaining hope and addressing rumors that it could be in development at Saber Interactive. Many in the community would take his word to suggest that theKOTOR Remakeis, indeed, dead.
Shortly thereafter, Schreier would dispute this to some degree. He reports that two people at Saber Interactive told himthe studio was still working on theKOTOR Remake,but his comments do come with a couple of caveats. First, he also acknowledged that Sony pulled out of the project, which is another devastating loss for theKOTOR Remake.Second, he also acknowledged that there’s a difference between a game being “alive” or being worked on and whether it ever manifests into a real game. Both Grubb and Schreier, to some degree, have indicated that development on it is so rough that a release is not a promise. Finally, if it did come out, he pointed out that what Saber’s take on theKOTOR Remakewould look like is an entirely different question.
It should also be noted that Disney’s head of gaming Sean Shoptaw acknowledgedthe fan demand behindKnights of the Old Republicin a vague comment: “Not a lot I can say on that point for some hopefully obvious reasons, but KOTOR is obviously an incredibly popular game, one that we are incredibly proud of and think that there’s still a lot of demand for. I’ll leave it there.” Many are looking into these hopeful words as rationale that Disney isn’t giving up efforts on a KOTOR Remake, but that only means so much in the grand scheme of things.
KOTOR Remake Stands at a Crossroads in 2024
After all of this, fan expectations for theKOTOR Remakeshould be on the outs. It’s hard to know anything about a game announced almost three years ago that has received no official updates. The first and foremost thing to hopefully come out of 2024 is less beating around the bush—for the still hopeful fans, Embracer Group needs to confirm if it is working on theKOTOR Remakeor if it is dead, if it was moved to Saber Interactive, and so forth. The delay is one thing; the complete lack of transparency is another. That’s where it all begins, and anynews on theKOTOR Remakecannot manifest before that.
If Embracer Group is still working on it, even providing a fewblog updates a year akin toDragon Age: Dreadwolfcould go a long way. It could be as simple as insight into the development process, showing what it’s focusing on at any time. That would go a long way in managing fan expectations, but also restoring the faith. If it’s not working on the title, fan eyes can turn to Disney and hope something new comes. TheKOTOR Remakehas reportedly been through one restart, but if there’s a second one, fans deserve to know that. In truth, there are a lot of fans kept on the hook, baited by the hopes for a renewedKOTOR, and they deserve some transparency and truth. But whether that actually comes in 2024 or if it’s more dismal news remains to be seen.
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