When fans thought all hope was lost, news has dropped that the KOTOR remake, which was indefinitely delayed, has moved to a new developer.
When the news dropped in September 2021 that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic would be getting the remake treatment, Star Wars fans - and gaming fans - couldn't wait to see what would come from the project. After all, Bioware's classic RPG is regarded as not only one of the best Star Wars games of all time, but one of the best RPG games of all time too.
However, just like Luke blowing up the Death Star, fans hopes and dreams were obliterated, as news dropped in July, that the remake had been indefinitely delayed, following a demo being shown to Lucasfilm and Sony, that received poor reception. Apparently the gameplay shown was no where near the standards of what the studios hoped, and what it needed to look like for release. So, the plan to release the remake this year was tossed away.
Aspyr, who were leading the development of the remake, have now reportedly given the reins to Saber Interactive, who will now be taking on development of the highly anticipated game. Embracer Group, the company that has just acquired the rights to the Lord of the Rings IP, has said in a statement that one of its "AAA projects has transitioned to another studio."
Saber Interactive was already helping out on development of the KOTOR remake along side Aspyr, but now have taken over entirely. Just because the remake is back under development, doesn't mean it is coming out any time soon though. It seems that this delay will set the project back to release around 2025.
Fortunately, this is not the first time Saber Interactive have worked on remaking classic, and much beloved games. In 2010, Saber was approached by 343 Industries to remake Halo: Combat Evolved for the game's tenth anniversary. After the high praise from the work they did, Saber then assisted in 2014 on the development on Halo: The Master Chief Collection. A great feature of Master Chief Collection was that players could switch between the new and improved graphics, to the classic graphics of the original titles with just the click of a button.
Not much is known about what changes the remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will make, compared to the original. Will it keep it's turn based combat? Will it stick to the original story and original, much beloved characters of Bastila and Carth Onasi? The only information we have had is a short teaser trailer, released back in September, that doesn't show any gameplay.
Fans of the series will have to be patient and wait for more news on the KOTOR remake, but at least we have been filled with a bit of optimism that the remake is no longer dead in the water.
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