The original 2003Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republicis one of the most beloved Western RPGs of all time, and it’s only natural that fans would want a remake. A few years ago, after over a decade of pleading for one, aStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake was finally announced for PlayStation 5 and PC, and while no official release date was given, fans were told that it was fully in development over at Aspyr.
But disaster soon struck for theStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake, as it was reported in the Summer of last year that the game was being delayed indefinitely. Its developer Aspyr was allegedly being replaced, swapped out for Saber Interactive, another developer under the Embracer Group banner. But with therecent announcement ofJohn Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, the fate of theKnights of the Old Republicremake is a little unclear.
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Toxic Commando Shows That KOTOR Isn’t Saber Interactive’s Sole Priority
Back in May 2022, as part of Embracer Group’s end-of-year financial report, it confirmed that Saber Interactive was working alongsideAspyr Mediato develop theStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake. Just a few months later, in July 2022, a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier alleged that theKOTORremake had been delayed indefinitely following an incredibly poor reception of an in-house vertical slice demo, which also seemingly resulted in the firing of the game’s art director and design director. A month later, in August 2022, Embracer announced that one of its big AAA projects had “transitioned to another studio.” The general consensus at the time was that this mysterious AAA project was in fact theKOTORremake, and the other studio was Saber Interactive.
While Embracer still hasn’t officially confirmed or denied this, even almost a whole year later, there have been several reports since from industry insiders that claim they know thatSaber Interactive has taken over lead development on theStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake. With Saber having 20 years of experience under its belt, many fans remained hopeful that theKOTORremake wouldn’t be just another gaming pipe dream, but with the announcement ofJohn Carpenter’s Toxic Commandos, that might not be the case anymore.
Announced at Summer Game Fest,John Carpenter’s Toxic Commandosis a 4-player co-op zombie shooter that seems to take the best parts of bothLeft 4 DeadandWorld War Zand mash them together. But whileToxic Commandoslooks like it could be a lot of fun, it’s being developed by Saber Interactive, the studio allegedly now leading theKOTORremake’s development. Some fans might see this announcement as bad news for theKOTORremake, inferring thatKOTORisn’t Saber’s only priority right now.
Saber Interactive is a big developer, with 20 studios dotted across the world and over 2500 employees, so it can handle developing multiple games at once. But many fans would’ve thought that getting theKnights of the Old Republicremake out of the door would have been Saber’s first and biggest priority. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact thatJohn Carpenter’s Toxic Commandoslooks a tad generic, and is releasing at a time when players are completely burnt out on 4-player co-op horde games following thedisastrous recent launch ofRedfall. Put simply, many gamers would rather be playingStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake in 2024 overToxic Commando, and the former’s radio silence amidst this new announcement doesn’t bode well.
TheStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republicremake is in development.
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