Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake – no comment from Embracer CEO

Big ‘if I speak, I’ll be in trouble’ vibes
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake – no comment from Embracer CEO
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!)

Revan may be out there, somewhere. Perhaps :: Aspyr Media / Disney

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.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will be free with Amazon Prime in November 2023


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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg