Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake is “in serious trouble” and “delayed indefinitely”, according to a new report.
Bloomberg said developer Aspyr fired the game’s art director and design director this month, and told staff the hotly-anticipated remake is “on pause”.
The dramatic decision comes after Aspyr, which has been working on the game for three years, demoed a vertical slice to Lucasfilm and publisher Sony at the end of June. Apparently Aspyr bosses told staff this demo “wasn’t where they wanted it to be”.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake – PlayStation Showcase 2021 Trailer | PS5
Aspyr and parent company Embracer have yet to comment.
What went wrong? Bloomberg said a “disproportionate” amount of time and money went into the demo, and the project wasn’t sustainable. Aspyr targeted a late 2022 launch for the KOTOR remake, but a “more realistic” target would have been 2025.
What happens next? Aspyr is scrambling to find a new project, Bloomberg said, and Saber Interactive, which is also part of Embracer’s all-encompassing umbrella of developers and had been drafted on to help in May, may assume direct control.
During its fourth quarter report, Embracer board member Matthew Karch called the KOTOR remake a “massive product”.
“Aspyr has gone full in to make this the best game that they can make. When we acquired Aspyr, we knew from the start that they would require our assistance [and] Saber has tremendous expertise in creating these types of products,” he said.
“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,” he continued, before assuring we would hear more about the game “in the next several months”.
On its release, the Star Wars KOTOR remake will be a timed PlayStation console and PC exclusive.
