Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake – no comment from Embracer CEO
Remember when official Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake posts were purged from the internet and people thought that signaled the end of the troubled project?
Yeah, things aren’t getting any better. During today’s earnings presentation by Embracer Group, which is responsible for the project, company CEO Lars Wingefors was asked about the game by an analyst in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek manner. Wingefors responded in a way that’s almost reminiscent of soccer manager Jose Mourinho’s now famous ‘if I speak, I’ll be in trouble,’ which has become a popular meme, saying: “I notice that anything I say to this becomes a headline, so that is my only comment.” (Thanks, Stephen Totilo!)
First: We didn’t put it into the headline directly, so the joke’s on you. Second: If you were looking forward to seeing some glimmer of hope surrounding the prospects of the KOTOR Remake, this wasn’t the answer you were looking for.
Announced in 2021, development of the game was initially entrusted to Aspyr Media, a studio that focuses on porting games to iOS, but that recently expanded into large remasters and remakes. However, according to some reports the studio was not up to a task of this galactic magnitude, being taken off the project after executives were presented with a gameplay slice leaving terrible impressions. Sony’s leadership might have tried to meddle as well, according to other reports, but it’s difficult to know what really went on behind the scenes.
Last we heard of the game in any capacity was that Aspyr’s parent company, Saber Interactive, likely took over leadership of development, which was delayed indefinitely. Saber, of course, has its hands full with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 at the moment.
While Wingefors might, somewhat understandably, be tired of being asked to answer a question he doesn’t have an answer for, he should be aware that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time – Star Wars and RPG fans both love the games by BioWare and Obsidian to death and beyond, so it shouldn’t be surprising to him that interest in the status of the project is so high.
Anyway, officially the game is still in the company’s “in development” list, where it shows up as being made for PC and PS5 by an external publisher and an internal developer. So, it’s not canceled yet, at least. Hard to see, the future is, as Yoda would say.