Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic returns – as a brand new remake. We have teasers, first info – and a possible hook.
Yes, we know, the remake to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is announced in the teaser “only” for PS5. So: Kotor returns. And the console exclusivity is just a sham anyway, but more on that in a moment.
As part of Sony’s big showcase event, the remake was announced with a short teaser that you can check out right here:
What do we know about the remake?
In the teaser, you see Darth Revan in all-new tech garb. Of course, the term “remake” already hints at it like an interstellar wink with a fence post: The new Kotor will be a complete remake, not a simple remaster. However, it is not being developed by Bioware, but is part of the Star Wars efforts of the Embracer Group. If that doesn’t mean anything to you: We have a very exciting background report on Embracer’s current strategy.
But to cut a long story short, Embracer is the group behind THQ Nordic and Deep Silver, which bought out developer Aspyr some time ago. Aspyr, in turn, has been responsible for ports of classic Lucasarts games such as Republic Commando and Jedi Knight 2 in the recent past. That those were promoted on much, much smaller flames also points to this: The Kotor remake takes place on a very different scale.
According to the official PlayStation blog the game is supposed to “encompass almost every aspect of the original”. What this means in terms of content cannot be said at the moment – but possibly Kotor will get a comparable remake to Mafia 1: Definitive Edition, i.e. new graphics, modern gameplay, but a faithful reworking of the old story. The story has always been Kotor’s greatest strength – developer Aspyr will probably hardly risk playing with the fans’ expectations here. Unless they wield red lightsabers in their spare time.
How likely is the PC version?
The official Sony blog also talks about a PS5-exclusive launch of the Kotor remake. If you put one and one together, you naturally come to the conclusion: the remake will be a PS5-exclusive game. The PC version was also officially confirmed on Twitter:
A legendary story remade for a new generation of players is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC. https://t.co/JdeFhyMG9W
— Lucasfilm Games (@LucasfilmGames) September 9, 2021
Our interpretation: The game will be released directly for PC and PS5, but not (for now) for Xbox. However, PC fans may be unlucky and will also have to be patient – we don’t know that for sure yet.
Is there a release date for the Kotor remake yet?
A Jedi practices patience and that’s exactly what you’ll have to do here. The remake is still in the early stages of development, according to the developer blog:
“The remake for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a massive undertaking for us, encompassing nearly every aspect of the original. We’re still early in development, but we’re even happier to reveal the project now.”
So we definitely don’t expect a release before 2023, more likely later. But look at it from the bright side of the Force: by then, there may be PS5s in shops again. Or graphics cards for a high-end PC.
