The upcoming remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been delayed indefinitely after development issues in Aspyr.
The development team working on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake presented a vertical slice (a small demonstration of concept designed to demonstrate a game’s key features) to publishers at Lucasfilm and Sony in late June. According to Bloomberg (opens in new tab)the demo was not well-received and Aspyr’s studio heads said the game was put on pause.
Shortly after the demo, design director Brad Prince and art director Jason Minor were fired from the project, surprising some developers who were excited about the game and thought it was on the right track. Aspyr’s studio bosses said the demo was not in the state they had hoped for.
Keep waiting, bags of meat
Aspyr originally planned to release Knights of the Old Republic Remake by the end of 2022, but those working on the project suspect a more realistic timeframe is 2025. creative director (opens in new tab) and several Senior Software Engineer (opens in new tab) positions, don’t expect the game to appear anytime soon.
It’s possible that Aspyr isn’t the only one to unleash it. Embracer, the studio’s parent company, announced in May that another of its subsidiaries, Saber Interactive, was joining the project. According to Bloomberg, some Aspyr employees believe that Saber could eventually take over the game’s full development.
These are just the latest interruptions in the studio. Former head producer Ryan Treadwell left Aspyr in May earlier this year for VR developer Skydance Interactive according to his LinkedIn profile. (opens in new tab). And writer Sam Maggs left the project (opens in new tab) after nine months in 2021. With the game now on hold, fans of the series who were excited to see the 2003 classic RPG rebooted and brought to PS5 will have to hold their breath.
In addition to the acclaim of Knights of the Old Republic, this remake is noteworthy as one of the first modern Star Wars games to be developed outside of EA. The publisher signed an exclusive licensing agreement in 2013, which is set to expire next year. Several Star Wars titles have already been announced in anticipation, including three new games from developer Respawn of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It will be some time before they launch, however, and the next game set in the galaxy far, far away has recently been pushed back to next year.