Rumors of a remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic have been circulating for over a year without official confirmation from EA or original development studio BioWare. In an interview with MinnMax, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier alleges that the remake is not only real, but it’s in development at Aspyr Media.
Previous rumors had already stated that the project was not in development at BioWare, nor even internally at EA. Instead the project was in development at a studio that “is just not a household name most people are aware of.” Aspyr Media certainly fits that bill and they have a pedigree with the franchise. The studio has already ported many Star Wars titles, including the KotOR games, to mobile platforms.
Rather than this version being a simple port to more modern consoles, it will reportedly be more of a remake with a few changes. The game is said to include aspects from both KotOR and its sequel, Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords. The current problem is that both games are no longer included in the Star Wars canon since Disney redefined many elements of the franchise. The remake reportedly aims to introduce the games, or at least some parts of them, back into that canon.
The development of the title away from EA shouldn’t be a surprise now that the publisher’s Star Wars license exclusivity has been removed. The publisher originally grabbed an exclusive deal to use the Star Wars license for ten years, due to expire in 2023. However, at the start of this year the Lucasfilm Games banner was created to house all officially licensed Star Wars games. This was closely followed by an announcement from Ubisoft Massive Entertainment that they’re developing an open-world Star Wars game using their Snowdrop engine. EA has stated they’ll continue to make Star Wars games in the future, one of which is reported to be a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
[Source: Youtube]
