Aspyr recently produced a demo of the KOTOR remake for publishers. Unfortunately, the publishers were far from impressed. Now key devs have been sacked, and the project is on the brink of collapse.
When you think of the best Star Wars games ever made you probably think of the original Battlefront games, and then maybe the LEGO Star Wars games, but after that you'd be mad not to mention KOTOR. This was one of the criminally-few attempts we've ever seen at an open-world Star Wars game.
Sure, it was rough around the edges by today's standards, but this was 2003. And a game that was able to be that impressive in the early 2000s absolutely deserves a modern remake. Sadly, it's hopes of ever getting one are looking in doubt...
Knight of the Old Republic Demo Disappoints Publishers
This is a heartbreaking story. The developers at Aspyr had been working on the game for 3 years and had finalized a demo on June 30 of this year. They were excited about the demo, and they felt hopeful about showing it to the publishing execs at LucasFilms and Sony.
But things didn't go to plan. Shortly after the publishers had reviewed the demo of KOTOR they put the project on hold and a couple of key devs were sacked. Who knows why it failed to impress them, but it must have fallen very short of expectations to warrant completely shutting down the project. Even this pile of trash was allowed to make it through development...
As Jason Schreier first reported for Bloomberg:
[Aspyr] abruptly fired the game’s art director and design director this month. In a series of meetings throughout July, Aspyr’s two studio heads told employees that the project is on pause and that the company will look for new contracts and development opportunities.
We don't know if this is the end for KOTOR, or whether this it's only a "pause", but we really hope they give development another chance. The original KOTOR was one of the best Star Wars games ever made, and fans haven't had an open-world experience like that since. Now all we get are endless Disney series set on Tatooine...
If you're looking for the nostalgia of a good remake, at least we can confirm that this one looks promising: