The odds of the upcoming remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (SW: KOTOR or simply KOTOR) have just gone down to 3,720 to one.
Game developer Aspyr Media has reportedly delayed the much-awaited remake of KOTOR indefinitely due to sudden major development issues that happened recently, according to sources familiar with the matter, per Bloomberg.
KOTOR, which will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive upon release, was previously announced in early September by Sony and was expected to launch sometime next year, per PC Gamer and Comicbook Gaming.
Star Wars: KOTOR Indefinite Delay Causes
Sources familiar with what happened to KOTOR's development mentioned that Aspyr Media is "trying to figure out what comes next," along with firing the game's art director and design director this month.
Jason Minor, the remake's art director, and design director, allegedly mentioned on his social media channels that his dismissal was unexpected, per IGN.
The company then announced in a set of meetings that leadership had decided to indefinitely pause the game's development to look for new contracts and development opportunities.
Aspyr's leadership told staff that the game's demo, which allegedly received a disproportional amount of time and money to develop, wasn't where they wanted it to be.
As such, a source familiar with the meetings found that the remake's current course wasn't sustainable.
Aspyr now believes that the game would be launched in a more realistic 2025 instead of having the game launch by the end of 2022.
The sources asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the game's development.
The indefinite delay is a major blow to Star Wars fans. The original 2003 game from Bioware was a huge success - it proved that "an amazing Star Wars game" could be accomplished by combining excellent storytelling and memorable charm with Star Wars' "fascinating alien worlds and lore," per Games Radar.
Even so, The Verge mentioned in its report that Aspyr Media is"quite familiar with the game and its sequel" as it worked on ports for both of them. Furthermore, some of the original KOTOR team is also involved in the remake's development, per Aspyr's Ryan Treadwell's statement in an interview with PlayStation Blog.
A New Hope
Fortunately, Saber Interactive, another studio owned by the Embracer Group, is already helping Aspyr develop the KOTOR, according to a Euro Gamer report.
Additionally, there are some at Asypyr who allegedly believe that Saber Interactive could take over KOTOR's development if necessary. However, this sentiment isn't confirmed by Aspyr, Embracer Group, and Sony.
Star Wars: KOTOR - A Quick Summary
For those unfamiliar with the game, KOTOR is set four thousand years before the events of the Skywalker Saga, during the High republic era, per PCGamesN and IGN. During this time, the galaxy far, far away was divided into two ideologically different governments - the Galactic Republic, and the Sith Empire.
Players take the role of an unknown soldier of the Galactic Republic, who gets swept up on a journey that will eventually end with a confrontation with the Sith and their superweapon that could provide an endless supply of war material to keep the conflict between the two governments going and eventually, have the Sith rule over the galaxy..
