A remake ofKnights of the Old Republichas been at the top of manyStar Warsfans' wish lists for years now, so the announcement of it at a PlayStation Showcase, for the PS5, was about as hype-inducing as it gets. Unfortunately, recent developments have been anything but. While Embracer Group has avoided mentioning it by name, it’s pretty set in stone thatKnights of the Old Republichas been moved from Aspyr to Saber, and that inherently creates a huge delay for the game. What many fans believed to be a dream becoming reality once again seems like a pipe dream.
It’s hard to know what happens from here, perhaps Saber picks it up and knocks it out of the park, but the internal delay, the changing of hands, and everything else involved spellsdevelopment hell for theKOTOR Remake. It’s perhaps too early to say that definitively, but there is seemingly a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario here. The best case scenario is thatKOTORtechnically falls into the same trap asThe Elder Scrolls 6.
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The Elder Scrolls 6 is Years Away
The Elder Scrolls 6was announced at E3 2018, which was four years ago. Many of the latest indications suggest that it is still in pre-production, as Bethesda works on releasing its first new IP in decades,Starfield. The announcement did not have to and probably should not have happened, given that it was over 1500 days ago and the public movement on it has been minimum.The Elder Scrolls 6will launch day one on Xbox Game Passfor Xbox Series X/S, but what’s noteworthy about this is that it was announced a full year before the Xbox Series X/S was. It was announced well before Microsoft ever acquired Bethesda.
A lot of reports and speculation point to 2025 as the earliestThe Elder Scrolls 6could release, and 2026-2027 sounds even more likely. One way of looking at this title is that it was announced during the PS4 and Xbox One generation and could release at the end of the PS5/Xbox Series X generation. In fact, it’s even possible it skips this generation entirely, as console gens typically last around 7 years, and so the next iteration of Xbox consoles (or iteration on this “series” of consoles) could very well happen the same yearThe Elder Scrolls 6releases. That is clearly a problem, but it does have a benefit.
The Elder Scrolls 6is not in development hell; there are no major reported problems with its development (at least as of now). It has just become the go-to example of a game being announced far too early, much earlier than many other games. That, in and of itself, is essentially the best-case scenario for theKOTOR Remake, even if it’s not ideal.
KOTOR Remake Jumped the Gun
KOTOR Remake’s development has already proven more dramatic thanThe Elder Scrolls 6’s; however, it is early enough that it can be turned around. With theKOTOR Remakeallegedly now in Saber’s hands, it would perhaps be best to think of this as a game announced by Saber in 2022. That’s obviously not great for Aspyr, but if one sees this as a game that was simply announced too early, which it clearly was anyway, then that’s the best-case scenario. It could very well be that Saber releases theKOTOR Remakein 2025 or beyond, making it a late but defining entry in the PS5 generation. After all, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said2024 was wishful thinking for theKOTOR Remake, unless Saber pared down the scope of the project. Perhaps that would be the middle ground here, but truth be told, it would be better to wait for a properly remadeKOTORthan accepted a watered-down version of it.
Of course, the worst-case scenario here is that this is just the beginning. If this isn’t just a restart but something that is instead repeated in a year or two, that’s textbook development hell. And sure, some games have emerged out the other side of this process relatively unscathed, but there’s always the question of if it will see the light of day or if the game’s quality has been compromised with so much shuffling. TheKOTOR Remakeis not a game that fans should be questioning like this; it deserves much more than that.
To this day,KOTORandRevan are as iconic toStar Warsas the Skywalker Saga. For many fans, it’s the holy grail of game development right now–alongside many other beloved titles, of course. But it needs to be the holy grail of Arthurian legend, not ofMonty Python’s comedy.
