Over the years, we’ve heard a lot of talk about BioWare working on a new Knights Of The Old Republic game. Their first RPG in the franchise remains an absolute classic among Star Wars fans, and both Obsidian’s sequel (The Sith Lords) and BioWare’s own MMO follow-up (The Old Republic) earned legions of fans in their respective heydays.
As for a new KotOR project from Bioware, it was reported at one point that their Austin studio was secretly hard at work on a new entry in the series. However, a recent update to the EA/Star Wars fiasco seems to indicate that isn’t the case. But, reportedly, that isn’t for lack of trying on Bioware’s part.
“They’ve tried to make it happen, more than once from what I’ve heard,” says Kotaku’s Jason Schreier on Twitter in response to a question about BioWare making another KotOR game now that EA controls the Star Wars licence. “No luck”, Schreier added, bringing our hopes crashing down once again.
On its own, there’s not much information there, but there is more to this story. First off, it’s worth remembering that Schreier has been a reliable source for years when it comes to reporting on what’s happening at various video game studios.
He’s also one of the people who previously stated that those reports which suggested BioWare is actively working on a new KotOR game are mostly false. It seems that there was a point when BioWare had pitched the idea of a new KotOR to the higher-ups at EA (and possibly worked on some kind of pitch for the game that might have included tech demos), but they never actually began work on such a project in earnest.
The question now is: “Why has EA seemingly denied them the right to do so?” That remains a mystery, of course, especially since EA’s party line is that they’re “fully committed” to the Star Wars licence. We could speculate as to why they might block Bioware from making a new KotOR entry, but it really would just be our own random theories.
What’s really heartbreaking is the implications this news has regarding BioWare’s true intentions. They’ve repeatedly stated that Anthem is the kind of game they want to make, but now we hear that they have seemingly made multiple attempts to revisit one of their most beloved franchises (beyond adding new content to the Old Republic MMO).
The shame of it all is that the second KotOR game, the one from Obsidian, left us dreaming of the possibilities of that franchise. Plus, the recent history of Star Wars games has left us fondly remembering the days in which Star Wars games were in plentiful supply. At the moment, we seem to hear of more cancelled Star Wars games than we see released ones.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for KotOR 3 to happen at some point down the line, but it might be wise to not hold our breath…