In a surprise that most of us wouldn’t have seen coming anytime soon, rumours of a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords have surfaced.
Perhaps the rumours of a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II remake wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if the remake of the 2003 original game, developed by BioWare, announced in 2021, wasn’t seemingly stuck in the dreaded developmental hell.
When the remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was announced, Aspyr was revealed as its developer, well, at least initially.
Since that time, we’ve read reports that the project has been passed from pillar to post, resulting in at least one change of guard. Some fear that the remake may have even been cancelled.
Will a KOTOR Remake Ever be Released?
However, this week, new rumours were making the rounds that the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake might actually appear at The Game Awards later this week on 11 December. Though that rumour should be taken with a pinch of salt until proven otherwise.
In a more recent rumour, as reported by Game File, in a lawsuit against Asypr, who were in charge of the Knights of the Old Republic II port on the Nintendo Switch, a case was made against the studio over content that was cut from the original 2004 game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and was to be restored in the port. Sadly, that cut content never made it into the re-release.
In court documents, the troubled Knights of the Old Republic remake is mentioned, but so too is a mystery project called “Juliet”, and this project is a KOTOR II remake.
“Juliet was the code name for a project where we were going to do a full remake of KOTOR II with modern art, modern gameplay, you know, keep the story and the characters and the general—the general content of KOTOR II,” said Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly.
“But remake it for modern hardware and modern machines with updated graphics and all those kinds of things. It was something we were discussing with Aspyr.”
Could a KOTOR II Remake Happen?
I think there are two key words in the above statement, that’s “was” and “were”, both being pretence. In that respect, reading between the lines, if the Knights of the Old Republic remake was successful, the sequel would have followed.
What’s more, if the sequel remake were to happen, it would include the cut content that never made it into the original sequel, which was intended to be restored in the Nintendo Switch port.
To be somewhat optimistic, that could still happen, but that will rely on at least two key factors. One: the Knights of the Old Republic remake would have to be released, and two: It would need to be a commercial and critical success.
There is further good and potentially bad news, however, because starting with the good news, Douglas Reilly also said, “We’re starting with the remake of KOTOR,” which suggests it may not have been cancelled after all.
As for the potential bad news, Aspyr is no longer working on the remake (which isn’t the bad news). Instead, Saber Interactive’s subsidiary studio, Mad Head Games, will now be leading the project. News of Saber Interactive’s involvement backs up reports from 2023.
I already had concerns with Aspyr handling the remake, because it’s a studio that hasn’t developed a massive game from scratch like the Knights of the Old Republic remake before. Typically, it would handle remasters and ports.
I don’t know a lot about Mad Head Games, other than it hasn’t released a massive game and developed it from scratch, either. It’s mostly developed mobile games and the odd PC game.
To be positive, Mad Head Games is working on the promising Hellraiser: Revival on behalf of Saber Interactive, but as promising as that game looks, we won’t know how good it is until it’s released at some point next year.
Perhaps my expectations are too high with both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games being all-time favourites of mine. I’d love for a developer such as Larian Studios to be attached or at least a studio that has had a lot of success with RPGs.
Hopefully, we’ll learn more either way at The Game Awards this week, to see if the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake resurfaces.
