Could a new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game really be in the works? A variety of rumors and clues seem to point in that direction. Rumors of a new KOTOR were started nearly a year ago by Jason Schreier and were recently reignited by the reliable Star Wars leaker Bespin Bulletin, who mentioned on a recent episode of his B.O.B. podcast that the RPG series may return with a new developer (not BioWare or anybody else under the EA umbrella) at the helm.
Whispers then emerged that the new developer may be Aspyr, as they’ve brought the original KOTOR games to multiple platforms and seemed to be staffing up with multiple ex-BioWare employees. Aspyr has typically focused on porting other people’s work, but according to recent job ads, they’re now working on an original “AAA role-playing game.” Hmmm!
Flash forward to last evening, when the Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) announced they had purchased Gearbox Software, Easybrain, and…Aspyr. As part of the announcement, Embracer revealed Aspyr is working on a major AAA game with a budget of over $70 million…
Aspyr currently has several games under development including one major ongoing game development project with an approximate budget of USD 70 million that is expected to become an important for the entire group. These development projects will engage more than 200 internal and external developers with the core team in Austin, Texas, and will contribute to Embracer’s release slate in the coming years.
Later during a livestream presentation, Embracer also let slip that Aspyr’s big project is a licensed title. A ResetEra thread was started to discuss the Aspyr project, with most posters speculating it was a new KOTOR game, and Jason Schreier popped in with a couple sneaky replies that could be interpreted as a confirmation (again, he's where all these rumors started).
Of course, take this all with a grain of salt for now – it’s up to you to decide whether all these clues add up. Personally, I’d say a new KOTOR from Aspyr is starting to seem pretty likely.
What do you think? Do you buy the rumors? Do you think Aspyr will be able to do the Knights of the Old Republic justice?
