Last night, Playstation dropped the news that one of the most beloved Star Wars games would be getting a remake – the groundbreaking and multi-award-winning RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Developed by BioWare, and originally released in 2003, the game is set over 4,000 years before the events of the original trilogy and introduced a new story of new heroes and villains in an epic struggle for the fate of the galaxy. You awake on board a Republic ship which is under attack by a Sith Lord. The adventure that follows takes you through different worlds, as you amass a party of memorable sidekicks, and uncover your own mysterious past.
This remake comes from Aspyr in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). Aspyr are an interesting choice, as they have mainly been know for porting other games across onto new platforms up until this point, not remaking games from scratch. However, they have been very busy hiring a slew of industry RPG veterans, including some of the original KOTOR development team, so they are taking this remake very seriously.
“Speaking for the development team, most of us are triple-A RPG developers,” commented Ryan Treadwell, lead producer at Aspyr. “This has been something that is a dream for all of us.”
The plan is to rebuild the entire game from the ground up using the latest tech to match the groundbreaking standard of innovation established by the original, all while staying true to its beloved story. KOTOR has always sat under the “Legends” banner (formally known as the Expanded Universe) at Star Wars. However, everything Star Wars has released since the Disney buyout has sat under the main Star Wars canon. It will be interesting to see whether this remake folds KOTOR into the main canon, or whether it is still considered to be under “Legends”.
“We know that KOTOR is one of the most beloved Star Wars stories ever told,” said Orion Kellogg, executive producer at Lucasfilm Games. “We really appreciate the stature it has with all of the fans out there. As hardware advances and as our game-making prowess advances and as storytelling advance, what better time to allow players to re-experience this great story with all of those lessons learned, and bring it back to modern platforms using modern methods? That’s something I’ve wanted to do personally for a very long time, and I think everybody involved with Star Wars games has wanted to do for a very long time.”
The game will be released as a will be a timed console exclusive for PlayStation 5, along with Windows PC. We don’t know when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake will be released, but it will definitely be on our gaming playlist when it does!
