For years,Star Warsfans have been desperate for aKnights of the Old Republicremake. Releasing all the way back in 2003,Knights of the Old Republicwas a truly groundbreaking game, especially for theStar Warslicense. By creating a party of complex, three-dimensional characters, making some of the most detailedStar Warsenvironments to date, and taking the franchise in a completely new direction,BioWare managed to makeKnights of the Old Republican instant classic. Fans finally got their wish last year, when Aspyr announced that it was working on aKnights of the Old Republicremake, but recent news is heartbreaking.
According toa Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, theStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake may have been delayed indefinitely. In the report, Schreier says that two employees of Aspyr have stated that the developer’s partners are not happy with the current state of the game, after viewing a vertical slice demo of the game so far. After viewing the demo at the end of June, Aspyr apparently firedKnights of the Old Republic’s Design Director and Art Director, and have since placed the game on indefinite hiatus while it looks for new contracts. While sudden unemployment is, of course, a terrible thing, thisKnights of the Old Republicdelay may be for the best.
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The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Delay May Be a Good Thing
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republicmay just be one of the most beloved games of all time, with hordes of vocal fans still taking to Twitter and Reddit every now and then to discuss the game and its legacy. Put simply, Aspyr may not be able to live up to that legacy. Founded in 1996, Aspyr began in the industry by porting popular PC games over to MacOS. In 2005, Aspyr partnered with Wideload Games and released irs first self-published title,Stubbs The Zombie. Over the last two decades, Aspyr has continued to primarily port other developers' games to other platforms, as opposed to making an original title from the ground up.
The closest Aspyr has gotten to developing its own game is creating a few remasters over the years, such as theFahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remasteredgame, released in 2015. But still, while these titles do add some new game features, improve on some technical aspects, and bring the game to modern consoles, it isn’t quite the same as creating a video game from scratch. TheStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake is an entirely different story, with Aspyr apparently remaking the game from the ground up for the PS5 and PC.
While this project is more than achievable, Aspyr’s recent track record hasn’t done much to inspire confidence in the remake. A year ago, Aspyr portedStar Wars: Republic Commandoto the Nintendo Switch and PS4. Though the PS4 version was a decent enough port, the Switch version was sorely disappointing, with some severe technical issues, such as button inputs simply not responding. This year, Aspyr ported bothStar Wars: The Force UnleashedandStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2over to the Switch, and while the former was fine for the most part, the latter caused a great deal of controversy, as it was plagued with numerous technical issues, with one bug so bad that it stopped players from being able to finish the game at all.
Aspyr is clearly a very capable developer, but it may not quite be ready to tackle sucha lofty project as theStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake, at least not by itself. With the game allegedly being put on hold for now, this gives both the developer and the game plenty of time to breathe and could alleviate a lot of pressure that’s undoubtedly built up while working on such a high-profile title. This could also open the door for other, more experienced developers to come in and help Aspyr, as reportedly Saber Interactive has been assisting as well. The more, the merrier. More time in development is never a bad thing, so hopefully, this delay is for the best and not permanent.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republichas reportedly been indefinitely delayed.
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