Jason Schreier of Kotaku has just revealed on Twitter that BioWare has apparently wanted to make KOTOR 3 multiple times, as part of a thread discussing how many promising Triple-A games had their quality suffer as they attempted to impress fans and executives, like Electronic Arts’s recently-cancelled Star Wars game.
That game, originally taken from a linear story developed by Visceral Games to an open-world games-as-a-service title when EA killed Visceral, was cancelled a few days ago as development apparently wasn’t panning out, and EA will be making a new, more linear game to replace it alongside Respawn’s upcoming game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
According to Schreier, there have been at least three Star Wars games that have been intended to revolve around a “Scoundrel” character, but all of them have been canned. According to Schreier, the cancellations mainly come from EA attempting to play it safe, asking fans what they want out of a Star Wars game and, inevitably, getting Jedi and lightsabers rather than anything new.
This is likely the same sort of reason (alongside EA’s assertion back in 2018 about how people feel about linear games) that BioWare hasn’t been allowed to make KOTOR 3 despite wanting to, if Schreier’s information is accurate.
While Star Wars: The Old Republic has been enough of a success to have a good, long run of itself, many fans of the Knights of the Old Republic games want a third game in that series, rather than The Old Republic, especially considering that BioWare hasn’t been able to put out a Star Wars game since releasing the MMO back in 2011.
However, along with the Star Wars game being made by Visceral and Amy Hennig, there were other Star Wars games that were also canned in favor of Jedi, rather than just BioWare making a KOTOR 3. Star Wars 1313 was a game that was supposed to be focusing on a young Boba Fett in the dangerous underbelly of Coruscant, but that was cancelled when Disney bought the Star Wars license and shut down LucasArts, and a promised novel to tell the story instead hasn’t materialized.
So, whether Schreier’s rumors about BioWare and its feelings on one of its most-beloved titles is true, hopefully some day EA will get it through their heads that you don’t have to be a Jedi just to have fun in the Star Wars galaxy.
