Vapourware Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake from Saber Interactive

[Dishonoredbr]

https://www.eurogamer.net/saber-interactive-joins-development-of-star-wars-kotor-remake

Saber Interactive joins development of Star Wars KOTOR remake
The force is strong with this one.

Evil Dead developer Saber Interactive has joined up with Aspyr to work on the upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake.

During the Q4 Embracer Group report, board member Matthew Karch revealed that Aspyr and Saber Interactive were now working together on the remake, calling it a "massive product".

"Aspyr has gone full in to make this the best game that they can make. When we acquired Aspyr, we knew from the start that they would require our assistance [and] Saber has tremendous expertise in creating these types of products," he said.

"We're fully confident that the game is going to be fantastic but it's a massive, massive product and massive products require a lot of effort and a lot of time to make good. And especially when you're talking about a game already old - very old - we've basically had to remake that game from scratch," he continued, before assuring we would hear more about the game "in the next several months".

While this leaves us with a rather broad window for when we can expect to hear more about the KOTOR remake, we could make a guess that it will appear at Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest, which is due to take place on 9th June.

Aspyr has previously said it hopes this remake will bring some newcomers to the series, as well being enticing enough to cater to long term fans.

"We've been working closely with Lucasfilm Games on classic Star Wars games for years, and that experience has instilled in our team a deep love and respect for these timeless titles, as well as a unique perspective on how to carry them forward into the modern age," Aspyr's lead producer Ryan Treadwell wrote on the game's announcement last year.

On its release, the Star Wars KOTOR remake will be a timed PlayStation console and PC exclusive.

Oh boy.. this gonna be so bad.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Funny how infiniTROON shills a troon game.

 

[Storyfag]

they made an expansion based directly on avellone's notes for a kotor 3

Waitwhat? Which one?

 

[mediocrepoet]

they made an expansion based directly on avellone's notes for a kotor 3

Waitwhat? Which one?

https://www.swtor.com/shadow-of-revan

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

they made an expansion based directly on avellone's notes for a kotor 3

Waitwhat? Which one?

Avellone's notes saying that Revan went into the Unknown Regions to do battle with the True Sith. The similarities end there. I don't know where this revisionist narrative comes from, but I can guarantee you his notes don't involve the retarded tale of two Revans that we got.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

hope you guys got an hour free

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

hope you guys got an hour free

I've heard this interview before. 34:41 for all who are interested.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

I've heard this interview before. 34:41 for all who are interested.

Apologies, I was pulled away earlier before I could edit the timestamp. The full section relating to the pre-production of Obsidian's hypothetical KotOR III is from 30:07 to 37:05.

The gist is that Avellone wanted the Exile to follow Revan's tracks visiting the shadowy worlds of the True Sith Empire, helping him take them out from within. He seems to describe these Sith as descendants of the exiled species but over time became something almost akin to primordial evils whose perverse influence had poisoned these planets and moons. To my mind, he's talking about beings that make Nihilus and Sion look like children when compared to their own political/ideological machinations. This is a far cry from TOR's True Sith Empire that was essentially a Galactic Empire ripoff despite carrying some of the trapping of the TOTJ comics. If Obsidian's K3 had seen the light of day, I wonder if they would have gone for a divergent aesthetic for the architecture/visuals of the True Sith given their complete isolation from the rest of the known galaxy. In regard to Revan, a party member perhaps? Or his own section of the game. What a missed opportunity.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The expansions were retarded shit, and they doubled down on the retarded shit with the latest updates. A couple of quest lines and zones and these fuckers call it an expansion... And this being the only star wars MMO, the player base accepts it all like the battered wives that they are.

I find it hilarious that some people liked the ridiculous "this is true sith empire and this os the disfuncional super hero family that runs it " expansions... All the content was reduced to follow this corridor, click those things, listen to exposition. There was zero multiplayer involved.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

....aaaand it's gone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-old-republic-game-paused-amid-studio-shakeup

In a series of meetings throughout July, Aspyr’s two studio heads told employees that the project is on pause and that the company will look for new contracts and development opportunities, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the situation.

 

[Dodo1610]

This sounds like a repeat of VTMB2 an inexperienced dev tries to make a AAA RPG and fails completely.

 

[MuffinBun]

The gist is that Avellone wanted the Exile to follow Revan's tracks visiting the shadowy worlds of the True Sith Empire, helping him take them out from within. He seems to describe these Sith as descendants of the exiled species but over time became something almost akin to primordial evils whose perverse influence had poisoned these planets and moons. To my mind, he's talking about beings that make Nihilus and Sion look like children when compared to their own political/ideological machinations. This is a far cry from TOR's True Sith Empire that was essentially a Galactic Empire ripoff despite carrying some of the trapping of the TOTJ comics. If Obsidian's K3 had seen the light of day, I wonder if they would have gone for a divergent aesthetic for the architecture/visuals of the True Sith given their complete isolation from the rest of the known galaxy. In regard to Revan, a party member perhaps? Or his own section of the game. What a missed opportunity.

Well the idea is still there for someone to pick up. It's not like you need the star wars license to tell that story.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Rarely even played
Then it gets remade
Unexpectedly

Just a little change
Too much to say the least
Devs are danger-haired
Not a one prepared
KotOR rest in peace

Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding nothing's changed
Learning they were wrong

Spent a metric tonne
Too much to say the least
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
KotOR rest in peace

 

[Storyfag]

This sounds like a repeat of VTMB2 an inexpirienced devs tries to make a AAA RPG and fails completely.

But it was supposed to be merely a remake...

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

But it was supposed to be merely a remake...

The only things they were planning on using from the OG were the story beats and the sound assets. The rest was being made wholecloth.

 

[Ghulgothas]

This sounds like a repeat of VTMB2 an inexpirienced devs tries to make a AAA RPG and fails completely.

And they didn't even get far enough to bait pre-orders or show off truncated gameplay or whore-out 4K Bastila before this project met its uncertain doom.

I don't know if I should be glad or disapointed about that fact.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Oh no! Now I can’t buy a game that I was never going to buy!

 

[Kem0sabe]

Full article:

"A hotly anticipated new Star Wars game is in serious trouble, according to people familiar with the project.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, a remake of a 2003 role-playing game, is delayed indefinitely as developers at Austin, Texas-based Aspyr Media try to figure out what comes next. Aspyr also abruptly fired the game’s art director and design director this month. In a series of meetings throughout July, Aspyr’s two studio heads told employees that the project is on pause and that the company will look for new contracts and development opportunities, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the situation.

Knights of the Old Republic was to be one of the first modern Star Wars console games released outside of Electronic Arts Inc., which had previously held the exclusive licensing rights. That deal expires in 2023, opening the door for new Star Wars games from outside companies like Aspyr, Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Quantic Dream SA.
The game was announced last September and has been in development for nearly three years at Aspyr, which was purchased by Sweden’s Embracer Group AB last year. Aspyr, founded in 1996, was best known as a service shop that brought existing video games to other platforms, such as iOS, including the original Knights of the Old Republic games.
On June 30, Aspyr finalized a demo of the game, known as a vertical slice, to show to production partners Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC and Sony Group Corp. The developers were excited about it and felt like they were on track, according to a person familiar with the project, so they were shocked by what happened next.
The following week, the company fired design director Brad Prince and art director Jason Minor. Neither responded to requests for comment, but Minor suggested on a social media page that his dismissal was unexpected.
Representatives for Aspyr and Embracer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Aspyr’s studio heads told staff that the vertical slice wasn’t where they wanted it to be and that the project would be paused, according to two people who were in the meeting. One person familiar with the discussions suggested that a disproportionate amount of time and money had gone into the demo and that the project’s current course wasn’t sustainable. Another point of contention may be the timeline. At the outset of development, Aspyr told staff and partners it would release the game by the end of 2022, according to two people familiar with production. Developers said a more realistic target now would be 2025.
The fate of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remains unclear. In May, Embracer announced that Saber Interactive would also join the project. Some at Aspyr believe that Saber, which has mainly been doing outsourcing work for the project, may take it over completely."

 

[The_Mask]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The dismissal of Jason Minor is strange. He was a lead artist on SWG, and SWG looked fantastic. Very much a similar style to the kotor games.
If they're getting rid of people like that then it's probably going to be shovelware.

 

[Roguey]

At the outset of development, Aspyr told staff and partners it would release the game by the end of 2022, according to two people familiar with production. Developers said a more realistic target now would be 2025.

Remote work productivity strikes again.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

The dismissal of Jason Minor is strange. He was a lead artist on SWG, and SWG looked fantastic. Very much a similar style to the kotor games.
If they're getting rid of people like that then it's probably going to be shovelware.

In my experience from IT admin, the qualified people ask for a decent wage. When things go wrong upper managment look for excuses and one of the big ones is that leads asked for too much money and need to be replaced with more "modest" employees. You see this the most when an inexperienced team hire experts for a project thinking that will cover for their dreadfully poor managment.

This starts a death spiral similar to the times Wile E. Coyote realises there's no floor under him and falls to his doom. Large amounts of money were spent that ate into a smaller team budget being treated like a larger team budget. Those experienced devs should not have been hired for a smaller team and now the money has run out. So mass firings, downsizing, and begging for more projects begins.

I knew this would happen. When you announce a remake of a big game like KotOR, and you want it to be triple A, you give it to a Triple A developer. (Yes I know they're all shit now) Not the lowest bidder. Which a porting company certainly were.

 

[The_Mask]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

At the outset of development, Aspyr told staff and partners it would release the game by the end of 2022, according to two people familiar with production. Developers said a more realistic target now would be 2025.

Remote work productivity strikes again.

gamedev productivity tanked before the coof

 

[Roguey]

gamedev productivity tanked before the coof

They've been working on this since November 2019 and then covid wrecked things. From a game that was supposed to be out in three years to six or more.