There’s no shortage of major AAA Star Wars games in productions at studios throughout the industry right now, and one that plenty of people are keenly anticipating is the Aspyr Media-developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake. BioWare’s 2003 original is regarded as one of the best games of its kind even today, nearly two decades on from its launch, and expectations from its remake are high.
Aspyr is owned by the Embracer Group, operating under the conglomerate’s Saber Interactive label. During a recent Embracer investors Q&A session, Matthew Karch – co-founder of Saber and a board member of Embracer – spoke abut the remake and its development.
When asked about how the remake’s production is going, Karch said that Aspyr is making it “the bst game they can make”, and also confirmed that Saber Interactive is lending development support for the game as well. He also referred the game’s exclusivity deal with Sony, which will see it launching as a PS5 console exclusive, alongside PC.
“Aspyr has gone full in to make this the best game they can make,” Karch said. “When we acquired Aspyr, we knew from the start that they were going to require our assistance. Saber has tremendous expertise in creating these types of products. We’ve done it on Halo, on multiple Halo products, we’ve done it on other titles that we’ve remastered or brought over onto other platforms. And so we’ve been spending a lot of time and effort working with them to bring this title over. I don’t think we’ve announced a release date on that one yet, [but] I do know there’s been an announcement that [there is] a collaboration with Sony.”
Karch went on to provide assurances that Knights of the Old Republic – Remake is going to be “fantastic”, but given the size and scope of the project, it’ll take “a lot of effort and time” to ensure that it lives up to expectations. That said, he also added that more news on the game will be arriving “within the next several months”.
“We’re fully confident that the game is going to be fantastic,” he said. “But it’s a massive, massive product, and massive products require a lot of effort and a lot of time to make good. Especially when you’re talking about a game that is already old, very old- we’ve had to basically remake that game from scratch. I would say within the next several months, you’ll be hearing more from us about it.”
Wrapping up, Karch stated that the Embracer Group expects the remake to be “one of the biggest sellers the year that it comes out”, and as such, is taking its time with it development.
“I’m feeling very, very positive about where we’re going to end up with it,” Karch said. But once again, we’re taking our time to make sure we do it right, because this is a game we think could one of the biggest sellers the year that it comes out. But so far so good.”
Details on the remake are scant for now. Other than the fact that it’s being rebuilt completely from the ground-up, one of the only things that developer Aspyr Media has confirmed so far is that the game will bring back several voice actors from the original title, including Jennifer Hale as Bastila Shan. Its development team is also comprised of several developers who worked on the original release at BioWare.
Earlier this year, reports claims that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake would feature action-based combat similar to God of War and Nioh, as opposed to the turn-based combat of the original game. Read more on that through here.
As for when the next update on the game arrives, that’s anyone’s best guess at this point- “the next several months” isn’t exactly a specific window, so it could mean any number of things. If we’re assuming that more details get shared in 2022, the game could show up at the imminent Summer Game Fest in June, the rumoured Sony showcase, Gamescom in August, or even The Game Awards in December.
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