The highly-anticipated remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, often referenced as KOTOR, finally gets a positive update. It's been nearly three years since the project was first announced for PlayStation 5, and the remake has been on one of the most tumultuous journeys of almost any video game in recent years. The KOTOR remake was originally in development at Aspyr, a company owned by Embracer Group. In July 2022, Bloomberg reported that the project was "dead in the water". Parent company Embracer Group shifted the game to Saber Interactive. Embracer owned Saber until recently, when several studios were sold of to Beacon Interactive, where Matthew Karch, the co-founder and CEO of Saber, is the director.
Now, we have an update from Karch, who confirmed in a recent interview with IGN that the KOTOR remake is still in active development at Saber.
"It's clear and it's obvious that we're working on this," Karch told IGN. "It's been in the press numerous times. What I will say is that the game is alive and well, and we're dedicated to making sure we exceed consumer expectations."
This is encouraging news for fans of the original KOTOR, which launched as an Xbox exclusive in 2003. The action role-playing game is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all-time, and exceeding expectations is not going to be easy. It sounds like Karch and his team at Saber Interactive want to get this remake right despite the production issues it's been through over the last three years.
When was the Knights of the Old Republic remake announced?
The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake was originally billed as a collaboration between Aspyr Media and production partners Sony Interactive Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games, and it was first announced as a timed PlayStation 5 console exclusive during September 2021's PlayStation Showcase event. The trailer for the remake was taken down last September, leading fans to believe that the project was canceled. However, PlayStation explained to Kotaku that the trailer was removed because of issues with licensed music in the trailer. "As part of normal business, we delist assets with licensed music when the licenses expire," Sony explained in an email sent to Kotaku.
Does the Knights of the Old Republic Remake have a release date?
While the encouraging update from Karch is a positive sign that the KOTOR remake is heading in the right direction, fans will have to wait a while before they get any announcements about the game's release date or a teaser trailer. There have been a bunch of rumors about the remake, and changes that will be made over the original KOTOR, but almost everything we've learned about the game has come from secondary sources, and nothing has officially been confirmed at this time. The project is clearly on its early stages of development, and of course, we're hoping that there won't be any further delays and production issues.
