A full remake of BioWare’s all-time classic Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic was announced at the PlayStation Showcase this week, but now it seems like both BioWare and parent company – and current Star Wars rights holders in gaming – EA seemingly have nothing to do it.
When Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake was announced on Thursday – and was confirmed later that it is definitely coming to PC – fans noticed that the only companies mentioned in the trailer were Aspyr Media, Lucasfilm Games, and PlayStation/Sony Interactive Entertainment. Completely excluded from the trailer and even the press release was any mention of KOTOR’s original developer BioWare or EA.
Other than the fact that BioWare created the original Knights of the Old Republic – and that BioWare/EA is still supporting MMO sequel The Old Republic – neither BioWare nor EA seem involved in the remake in any way. BioWare stated its support for the project on Twitter, while giving detached phrases like how it “will watch with great interest” and calling it “Aspyr’s Remake”.
Game Awards host Geoff Keighley actually reached out to EA to confirm whether it or BioWare had anything to do with the KOTOR remake and received the slightly ambiguous response below – with EA stating how proud it was of its own Star Wars projects and saying how its collaboration with Lucasfilm would “continue for years to come”, but with no mention of KOTOR or Aspyr.
I asked Bioware (and EA) if they are involved in the STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC remake announced yesterday and just received this response.
So I guess that's a no? pic.twitter.com/mwa1FDdbjE
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) September 10, 2021
While none of this is outright confirmation, it certainly seems that BioWare isn’t helping out with the remake of one of its most popular games. However, between KOTOR and Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world game it certainly looks like EA no longer has the exclusive licence to produce Star Wars games anymore – despite producing some of the best Star Wars games ever made.