Of all the Star Wars stories to have been told so far, there’s arguably none quite as interesting as that of video game development. And, now, we have yet another piece of news to add to the mix.
The troubled Knights of the Old Republic remake has found new life, transitioning studios to Saber Interactive.
Flashback 11 months, Aspyr Media, the original developer, released a teaser trailer as part of the PlayStation Games Showcase announcing KOTOR’s return. At the time, it was described as a ground-up remake of the iconic early 2000s RPG built exclusively for the PS5.
Many had confidence in the project solely because of the name behind it. Aspyr Media had reformatted many Star Wars projects before including the Jedi Knight games and even produced an iOS port of KOTOR itself.
Since then, however, we had heard nothing official. And, in this case, no news was bad news. Late July, KOTOR was reportedly delayed alongside news of the firings of the art director and design director shortly after finishing an initial demo. At the time, it was said that Aspyr was searching for the best course of action, in a sense, putting the project on hold.
It looked like the first step toward cancellation. In a rare change of circumstance, we have received a bit of good news this time around. Rather than being abandoned, Knights of the Old Republic is switching studios to Saber Interactive, who will continue developing the project.
Now, it isn’t so much of a switch as an elevation. Saber Interactive owns Aspyr Media, both of whom fall within the Embracer Group. On top of that, an Embracer board member revealed that Saber had already been enlisted to assist with the project as of May this year.
Some of the comments from that board member, Matthew Karch, at the time, give a bit of context to what may have made a change in studios a necessity.
"We’re fully confident that the game is going to be fantastic but it’s a massive, massive product and massive products require a lot of effort and a lot of time to make good. And especially when you’re talking about a game already old — very old — we’ve basically had to remake that game from scratch."
With all of that in mind, I’d consider this news a win for Knights of the Old Republic. The game is transitioning to a studio that seems up for the task, and because of the pre-existing work, no delays are expected to follow. Now, that doesn’t mean the game is coming anytime soon, of course. But it does inject a whole lot of life back into what promises to be an incredible way to relive the past when it arrives.