Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic also won’t be an incredibly long game. “Bigger isn’t necessarily better,” Hudson explained. “If I’m excited about a game and then I find out that it’s 200 hours long — even if I have no ambition to actually finish it — I wonder, if I put 20 hours in, will I even be out of act one? A lot of players just want to play something and finish it.”

In the same interview, former NetEase executive Simon Zhu revealed that he is funding the project, along with others, as part of his new company named GreaterThan Group. To achieve his goals of publishing interesting projects, Zhu has confirmed that the company has raised $40 million so far and has also gotten commitments for almost $60 million more. While he didn’t want to name any of the investors due to privacy concerns, Zhu said that, “They’re all very successful individuals — gaming and tech entrepreneurs.”

As for why he wanted to run his own holding company that could invest in the development of video games, he said that it comes down to the fact that many of the major players in the market have walked away from the medium, preferring to put their money into other enticing technologies, like AI. “Big tech walked away; the capital walked away,” Zhu said. “Now, they love AI investment.”

“You can have player satisfaction,” Zhu continued. “You can have commercial success. You can have the achievement of art. You don’t need to compromise or sacrifice one thing for the other. Let’s give the best creator the opportunity to work on a dream project. Everyone wins.”

However, he also noted that the industry has started seeing some growth again, and the consumer base hasn’t suffered from instability when compared to other markets.

“It’s not about commercial success alone,” he said. “It’s about making a good case that we can make good money and provide good entertainment to people in a decent and honest way.”

Along with Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, GreaterThan Group is also funding BulletFarm on a new shooter project. The studio is led by David Vonderhaar, who has previously worked on Call of Duty games during his time at Treyarch. Vonderhaar has explained that the studio’s new title won’t be like Call of Duty. Rather, he said that it would be like “if David Lynch made shooters” and that “it is not a Call of Duty killer.”

In the meantime, Arcanaut Studios, the developer of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, is continuing to grow its team, bringing in industry veterans who have previously worked on projects like Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

“They’re all very successful individuals — gaming and tech entrepreneurs,” said Zhu without naming any of the investors, citing privacy concerns. His reasons for opening up his own holding company came down to the fact that quite a bit of money from the gaming industry has been disappearing, thanks to major tech companies and venture capitalist firms walking away from the medium in favor of investing in AI.

“Big tech walked away; the capital walked away,” Zhu said. “Now, they love AI investment.” Overall, however, he has expressed quite a bit of optimism, believing that art and commercial success can be achieved without sacrificing each other.

“You can have player satisfaction,” Zhu said. “You can have commercial success. You can have the achievement of art. You don’t need to compromise or sacrifice one thing for the other. Let’s give the best creator the opportunity to work on a dream project. Everyone wins.”

Another studio being funded by GreaterThan Group is BulletFarm, which is working on a new shooter project. The studio is led by industry veteran David Vonderhaar, who has previously worked as a design director at Treyarch on games in the Call of Duty: Black Ops series. GreaterThan Group is also funding the Tokyo-based MAGship, led by Konami veteran Masato Sakai, who was also credited as playing a key role in making Yu-Gi-Oh! a global IP.

While the latter is focused more on other forms of media like anime, with BulletFarm, Vonderhaar has noted that he isn’t working on a new military shooter, and that his ambitions revolve around the idea of “if David Lynch made shooters.” He went on to say that “It’s not a Call of Duty killer.”

Considering Zhu’s previous role as president of global investments and partnerships at NetEase, his firm’s decision to fund BulletFarm is particularly noteworthy, since the studio was previously being funded by NetEase, which dropped its support for the project over the last few years.

Zhu has said that his interest in funding gaming projects largely comes down to the fact that revenue in the industry has started to go back up, and the consumer base has continued to be quite stable. “It’s not about commercial success alone,” he said. “It’s about making a good case that we can make good money and provide good entertainment to people in a decent and honest way.”

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was officially unveiled back in December 2025 with a CG trailer. There has been no word on when the title will come out, but in a social media post, director Casey Hudson has promised that it will be out before the end of 2030.

While Hoyle is known for his work at BioWare during the development of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect trilogy, Livingstone has an even longer resume. Her work includes several of the studio’s RPGs, like Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age, along with her also having worked on the two sci-fi RPGs. Joining them is Melanie Faulknor as director of external developments, who has previously worked on Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. According to Eurogamer, the newest addition to the team is now Den Fessenden as senior technical designer, who is an industry veteran that has also worked on the original Knights of the Old Republic.

The team being made up of so many former BioWare developers ties in with Lucasfilm Games VP and GM Douglas Reilly’s thoughts on the development of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. Back in December, he spoke about the legacy of Knights of the Old Republic, saying that the new game will be “about honoring that legacy by creating something in the same tradition of a deep, cinematic, choice-driven role-playing game.” The team at Arcanaugt Studios is also made up of “people who helped shape that legacy.”

Hudson, who also happens to be CEO of Arcanaut Studios, spoke about why Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic won’t be carrying over the lore established by Knights of the Old Republic, noting that Disney’s acquisition of the IP led to the discarding of all preceding expanded universe media.

“When we developed the original KOTOR, we wanted to create a definitive Star Wars experience — crafting an adventure that consisted of all the things we dreamed of doing as Star Wars fans,” Hudson explained. “Now, 25 years after we started work on that game, our aspirations are equally ambitious. Fate of the Old Republic represents an opportunity to explore a contemporary vision of a definitive Star Wars experience, using state-of-the-art technology and game design, and an all-new story crafted specifically to deliver on the combination of player agency and immersion in Star Wars that was at the heart of KOTOR.”

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was officially unveiled back in December 2025 with a CG trailer that showcased a female protagonist and a pair of companions. While Arcanaut Studios hasn’t yet announced a solid release date for the title, Hudson has said that it will be out before 2030. No platforms have been announced for the game yet, either, but it will likely come to PC and current-generation consoles.

Well, that has now changed with Pascal Blanché joining its team as the studio art director. He is best known for his work on games like Assassin’s Creed (2008),  Far Cry: New Dawn, and Splinter Cell: Conviction, aside from indies like Hooked On You under his belt.

He broke the news himself, via a post on Bluesky, with the following statement: “Super excited to announce that I started a new position as Studio Art Director at ArcanautStudios, where I joined forces with Casey Hudson and his amazing team to work on the next epic Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic!”

With Hudson, who is the director of the upcoming title, stating that it was going to be a “love letter” to the title that inspired it, it’s going to be interesting to see what touches Blanché creates for what’s shaping up to be a fresh new take on a galaxy far, far away.

Although Fate of the Old Republic doesn’t have a release date yet, things are certainly looking like the game is in good hands. Now, all we can do is wait to find out who’s featured in the image that Blanché shared along with his post, which you can check out below.

Super excited to announce that I started a new position as Studio Art Director at ArcanautStudios, where I joined forces with Casey Hudson and his amazing team to work on the next epic Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic! #swfotor

— Pascal blanché (@pascalblanche.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T02:34:06.662Z

Of course, because of the studio’s recent establishment, there are those, like Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who believe it wouldn’t launch until 2030 (if not later). Hudson responded on Twitter afterwards, telling fans, “Don’t worry about the ‘not till 2030’ rumors. Game will be out before then. I’m not getting any younger!”

Which is all well and good, but that doesn’t mean it’s launching next year or even in 2027. Then again, considering how far away the KOTOR remake seems to be (don’t even get us started on the sequel’s alleged remake), it’s better than nothing.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic doesn’t have any platforms, but it’s confirmed to be a single-player narrative action RPG. Players venture through a “galaxy on the edge of rebirth” as a Force user, and, like the original, your choices will have an impact.

Drawing on his time having worked on several games adapting the Star Wars universe, including MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, Reilly notes that this new game is “about honoring that legacy by creating something in the same tradition of a deep, cinematic, choice-driven role-playing game.” He also noted that Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is being built by people who helped shape that legacy.”

Studio CEO and Knights of the Old Republic director Casey Hudson also spoke about his experience in working on a game in the Star Wars setting after such a long time, since the RPG first came out all the way back in 2003. As for why it took so long to get a new major Star Wars RPG going, Hudson noted that “a project like this is a huge commitment for everyone involved, so it took the right conditions to get everything to line up.”

As for why Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic won’t be a direct sequel to the classic BioWare RPG, it is worth noting that the current incarnation of the Star Wars setting essentially jettisoned all of the previously established lore that wasn’t already covered in the movies. Since then, IP owner Disney has focused on creating its own background lore for Star Wars with a slate of movies, TV shows, books and comics. Owing to this, while Knights of the Old Republic might no longer be canon for the current Star Wars setting, Fate of the Old Republic will likely tap into some of the newer lore that has been established since then.

“When we developed the original KOTOR, we wanted to create a definitive Star Wars experience — crafting an adventure that consisted of all the things we dreamed of doing as Star Wars fans,” Hudson explained. “Now, 25 years after we started work on that game, our aspirations are equally ambitious. Fate of the Old Republic represents an opportunity to explore a contemporary vision of a definitive Star Wars experience, using state-of-the-art technology and game design, and an all-new story crafted specifically to deliver on the combination of player agency and immersion in Star Wars that was at the heart of KOTOR.”

As for how Hudson’s studio—Arcanaut Studios—ended up being the developer for Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, Hudson noted that he had maintained contact with Lucasfilm over the 20-plus years since the release of Knights of the Old Republic. This essentially meant that, when it was time to discuss a new project, conversations between the studio and the company went well.

“Our goal is developing the kind of games I love making: emotionally powerful, cinematic adventures driven by player agency, narrative depth, and immersive world-building,” said Hudson about Arcanaut Studios. “Conversations between our team and Lucasfilm Games led to an incredible opportunity to return to Star Wars, and once again we can hardly believe we’re working on such a special project.”

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was announced during The Game Awards 2025 with a teaser trailer. The title doesn’t yet have a release date, however.

There wasn’t much information revealed aside from a CG trailer showcasing a female protagonist, two companions, and a strange new threat. Of course, you’ll have your trusty lightsaber to help out.

Development is headlined by Arcanaut Studios with Lucasfilm Games, with the title described as a “spiritual successor” to the first Knights of the Old Republic. The development team consists of numerous veterans, and as you’ll traipse through the galaxy, there will be hard-hitting decisions to make (and an alliance to either the Light or Darkness).

There’s no release date or platforms announced, so stay tuned for more updates on Fate of the Old Republic.