It’s been 5 months since Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was announced at the Video Game Awards with a CGI teaser trailer, and we are now getting some of our first information, which was in preproduction at the time of that trailer. In particular, Game Director Casey Hudson, who previously worked on the classic BioWare RPG series, this is meant as a spiritual successor too, has promised that this isn’t a bloated single-player game that will take over half a decade to develop.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Hudson reaffirmed that the plan is to have Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic in players’ hands before 2030, though there is no release date in mind currently. He stated he has never spent more than four years working on a project, and has no desire to spend more than five years invested in one, which has become commonplace in the current industry. AI was also ruled out as a tool to help speed the development process, describing it as “creatively soulless” as well as”unhelpful.” The plan is to hire contractors to aid in the development, but avoid inflating to hundreds of in-house staff to keep costs more manageable.
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is being backed in part by a new holding company known as GreaterThan Group, which is led by a former NetEase executive, Simon Zhu. As revealed in this interview, GTG has $100 million total, with $40 million of that in the bank and $60 million in funding commitments. This gives the company a decent amount of wiggle room for projects they might invest in.
Hudson said that when it came to his new Star Wars project, he didn’t want to make a game that is hundreds of hours long. He stated:
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. If I’m excited about a game and then I find out that it’s 200 hours long — even if I have no ambition to actually finish it — I wonder, if I put 20 hours in, will I even be out of act one? A lot of players just want to play something and finish it.
He did promise that the title would be replayable, thanks in part to branching storylines that will drive players to explore alternative options and outcomes. When announced during the VGAs, it was stated that Argonaut Studios would be developing the title, a studio that Hudson had only founded six months prior. Obviously, with so little lead time for the announcement and heavily banking on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic name, it seemed unlikely the project was anything short of six years out. While Hudson has given no indicator on how they plan to achieve their timeline, it does seem the scope of the project will be smaller than anticipated. Not that that is a bad thing.
Of course, there are other reasons to be concerned about another Star Wars project with a high-quality teaser trailer. Quantic Dream has been developing Star Wars: Eclipse for years, having gone quiet following the initial trailer. Similarly, a remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been in development since 2021, originally with retro remaster studio Aspyr attached, until they were removed, with Saber Interactive taking on development duties along with publishing. It has also not been seen since that initial trailer, but Saber has reaffirmed its development multiple times.
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