Sony’s PlayStation Showcase 2021 took place on September 9, and a number of major game reveals got many viewers excited, not the least of which was the announcement of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake. The first trailers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and God of War: Ragnarok gameplay were also among the topics discussed avidly on social media after the event. However, some people noticed that a few key names were missing at the end of the Knights of the Old Republic Remake trailer.
The trailer for the KOTOR remake had everything necessary to truly make it a teaser. Almost nothing was revealed, other than a shadowy glimpse of the Sith Revan and his lightsaber. The blurb at the end also hinted that the game is being remade for the PlayStation 5, and an official blog post later confirmed that the KOTOR remake will be a PS5 exclusive at launch.
The blog post also explained how developer Aspyr Media, Lucasfilm Games, and Sony Interactive Entertainment have come together to create Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake. The original game was developed by BioWare in 2003 and was later ported to Mac, iOS, and Android by Aspyr. Geoff Keighley reached out to BioWare and EA to see if they will be involved in any way with the KOTOR remake. Although it seems that BioWare has yet to respond, an EA spokeswoman did not answer the question directly and instead stated that the company is “proud of our long-standing collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, which will continue for years to come.”
The absence of Electronic Arts is somewhat surprising because the publisher signed a 10-year Star Wars exclusivity deal with Disney in 2013. However, it has long been rumored that Disney has not been pleased with EA’s handling of the franchise, with only four games published in the span of eight years, one of which released as a budget title. And Lucasfilm Games already announced in January that it would be working with Ubisoft to develop an open-world Star Wars game, although that project will likely not come to fruition until after the EA exclusivity deal ends. However, EA claims that it will continue to develop Star Wars games even after the exclusivity license expires.
According to the Sony blog post, Aspyr Media is rebuilding Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake from the ground up with the latest tech. A number of industry veterans, as well as some members of the original KOTOR development team, will be working on the remake. In addition to porting the original KOTOR and its sequel to mobile devices and Mac, Aspyr has also worked on other Star Wars games, such as Star Wars Republic Commando, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake is in development for PC and PS5.
Source: PlayStation.Blog