The clue was in the trailer, but Sony has its blue fingers all over Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake. While production is being led by a “newly created team composed of industry veterans at developer and publisher Aspyr”, the Japanese giant will publish the release on PlayStation 5 and is collaborating with the company on development.
“Nearly 20 years after its debut, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remains one of the most highly requested remakes from the PlayStation community,” said PlayStation’s marketing bigwig Eric Lempel. “The time is finally right to bring this dream to life for both diehard fans and those who have yet to experience it.”
While it will release as a console exclusive – suggesting it’ll deploy elsewhere at a later date – this is the latest example of the Japanese giant money hatting projects that it believes will bring value to its console ecosystem. With Microsoft buying up Bethesda, and thus having a stranglehold on WRPGs, this particular release could prove a shrewd investment from the Japanese giant.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 59
Huge get for sony
And yet people will still moan that timed exclusivity is worse then a platform holder buying a major publisher to gatekeep long running franchises.
If they are assisting with development and fronting money as publisher, I wouldn’t exactly call it “moneyhatting”, that’s when a company literally just buys up rights without putting anything in.
Yeah this is definitely the right move for Sony. It's a shame they couldn't bag it as exclusive...but if they can have it 12 months then it's a decent card to play against all the big wrpgs Microsoft now have in their back pocket. God knows how far away this game is though...
Makes sense when Xbox is going to be the home of Bethesda's and Obsidian's western RPG's, a shrewd investment indeed
It's makes me laugh when xbox die hards moan and moan about how Sony deals in timed exclusivity even though those games will still come to xbox at some point, yet its ok when Microsoft buy a huge third party developer locking their games to xbox.
Salty is the word I'd use, and the jealousy will never disappear
@AdamNovice Those people are insane. I've still seen more of a backlash to Spider-Man being console exclusive in Marvel's Avengers than anything like that.
@thefourfoldroot That's fair.
So it's PS5 only then?
@UltimateOtaku91 Whilst you are correct that some (not the majority, by far) of the Xbox community will be and act as you describe in your comment, the exact same can be said of PlayStation gamers when Microsoft do something similar. Indeed, some might even describe your comment as being 'salty'...
Right now is a great time to be a gamer, and that should be celebrated all round, whether you are team Blue or Green...
I've never played the game myself but opening the show with this (no that trash ad didn't happen) was a shrewd move, a lot of fans out there consider it a goat game. Hopefully they can deliver.
@get2sammyb In fairness to the Xbox community, their biggest gripe is twofold;
1. One of the biggest Marvel character is excluded from the game (it's not like he's a small character that most people don't even know exists (I mean, he's got a whole load of games dedicated to just him, and there aren't many characters that have that privilege or exposure).
And 2. Despite the fact that such a huge character has been removed from the game, and therefore a chunk of the game has been removed too, Xbox gamers are still expected to pay exactly the same for the game as PlayStation gamers, whilst getting less content.
It is no small matter for them, and it is one I can totally understand and appreciate. Were the situation reversed, I'm sure we would hear exactly the same complaints and criticism on here.
Absolute stormer to kick the showcase off.
Considering the original’s history as an Xbox exclusive, I was absolutely surprised that Sony’s fingers were on this one. I’d rather it would’ve been KOTOR 3, but a full on remake could be an exciting thing.
My guess is that it will come to PC later, which comes to no one's surprise considering that Sony is porting their games to PC. Not that I don't mind btw. Would love to see it come to other platforms but seeing it as a Playstation exclusive at launch no doubt caught me by surprise.
@SoulsBourne128 It’s a console launch exclusive. So PC as well.
I don't know why this game doesn't excite me. I mean, I enjoyed the original game.
Maybe because it's yet another remake.
@AdamNovice
They've been doing that since yesterday on PureXbox. The Indiana Jones game and ES/FO due to Zenimax acquisition, that's ok, they're still defending that.
But a timed exclusive Star Wars game is evil, anti-consumer and out of order because the original was on Xbox first. It's a real storm over there right now.
TBH there is no guarantee it's going to Xbox at all. Sure it's says 'timed exclusive' but that could just be between PS5 and later on PC since a day one PC launch hasn't been confirmed.
The wording leaves a lot to interpretation. 'Launch Console Exclusive' where console exclusive usually means 'One Console and a PC release' at some point.
@UltimateOtaku91
I saw you really getting some flak for your opinions over on PureXbox just because you made some valid points. The KotOR article over there is a real crap storm.
And yet us PlayStation/PushSquare guys are the toxic ones apparently.
@somnambulance
We might get a KotOR 3 yet if this turns out to be a sales success. While it gets some flak I wouldn't mind SWTOR on consoles because I never played it on PC and given how the likes of Destiny have done well a cross-play SW would do very well on consoles I think.
I'd say you're all toxic. I've browsed these sister sites long enough to see the opposite situations unfold. Oh well, that's business for ya. 😝🤷♂️ Just keep a decent gaming level PC around too and one's set no matter what's announced.
@get2sammyb maybe I’m insane but I think buying a studio or publisher that was struggling and facing downsizing, keeping them afloat and actually increase their budget, is a fair claim to exclusivity and that goes for all, Sony, Nintendo and Xbox.
When those deals happen, also, the consumer just knows without ambiguity where the game they want will be and won’t be.
Secret times exclusivity deals that don’t reveal the terms (unless the terms leak) and sometimes even get renewed (FF7R) are simply more frustrating to me.
I still understand the cases where the times exclusive is financed up front by a console maker, those games might had never existed at all.
I don’t like it, from any console maker, when they just buy up exclusivity deals at the last minute simply to keep things away from the competitor for Secret Number of Months.
I can imagine that XDev will support Aspyr for this Remake
@GADG3Tx87 did they already forget that the Indiana Jones Games is most likely also exclusive to Xbox lmao
Never played the original KotOR but it’s Star Wars so I’m definitely interested.
Can’t support the timed exclusivity though because as a Tomb Raider fan, I know how much that sucks. Although I guess these are slightly different circumstances - it being a random remake and not a sequel to a hugely successful reboot and generally beloved franchise.
@GADG3Tx87 If you actually take the time to read the comments regarding the Sony showcase on the Xbox site, they're not that dissimilar to the opinions expressed here on the topic of the showcase. It's no more or no less toxic than the opinions expressed on this site. If you go back and take a look at the comments expressed on this site regarding the Xbox E3 event, you will see numerous salty, and truthfully, unfair comments. It just seems to be what some (not most) people enjoy doing. They enjoy the fandom, regardless of how petty and immature it actually is. Personally, I cannot understand it; why do we even have this toxicity (such as it is) at all?
Project Eve was the only thing I saw and thought "Finally, this feels like Playstation!" But...it's multiplat.
GoW is of course anticipated. It doesn't actually look different from the first. More of the same is good, but it doesn't have a big wow factor like the first did. Looking forward do it, but tempered now.
Beyond that? KOTR remake I guess is nice, it was an amazing game. Might play it. "Timed exclusive" means I'll probably buy it cheap on PS after it launches on XB.
But PS now feels like the most mainstream product ever, loaded with Marvel everything, and at this point I won't touch that with a barge pole. I play games instead of watching movies to get away from that stuff. If PS is all about "whatever the biggest mainstream thing is" rather than creating it's own interesting worlds to visit, there's not much interesting about PS. I know the new IPs will come. Eventually. The question is will we be preordering PS6's by then?
@Tharsman Yeah, it's the secret timed exclusivity thing that bothers me. The last minute exclusivity buys, and the secrecy around if it's "timed exclusive or full exclusive". It feels very shady. People here are complaining "it's only timed and MS did worse buying studios" but the difference is outside the paranoid conspiracy delusions everyone knew that meant the games were directly funded and console exclusive, period. The weird "will it, won't it, it might, it might not" terms with secret exclusivity just get fatiguing. Matrick is the one that made the "timed exclusive" and industry thing, really, but it's Ryan that's embracing that original vision. Even Matrick revealed the exclusivity duration though, so PS players still knew when they got the game. PS isn't doing that for XB players. A paywall is a paywall, but a paywall with secret terms and conditions feels like extortion and spoils the milk.
@IonMagi
I'm guessing so, or it's selective memory, or hypocrisy, or all of the above.
@Fiendish-Beaver
Oh don't get me wrong, I agree. It's stupid, I personally just don't like the hypocrisy. I don't hate Xbox and blindly love PlayStation. Hell, I was extremely against the Horizon Forbidden West upgrade situation from Sony despite owning a PS5, it's just wrong.
We're all gamers yet so many are at each others throats, slating one side for the exact same thing the other does.
@IonMagi Actually, the rumour is that Raiders is multiplatform because the deals were struck before the Bethesda acquisition. I think you'll find the majority of Xbox gamers believe that to be the case, from what I've seen. If you think about it, Starfield has long been confirmed as an exclusive, but not Raiders. Why not? It could be a system seller of a game, so why not announce it as an exclusive? Likely as not, it's because the game is multi-platform. From what I've read, it seems that most of the guys on the Xbox forums just think it's multiplatform, and just accept that fact. If there's any salt it's likely because KOTOR was originally an Xbox exclusive, but again, most comments I've read believe the game will eventually arrive on the Xbox anyway, and they also understand that the remake is being handled by a completely different developer and with Sony's money. It's not really any different to the general acceptance on this site that Xbox got the better version of Psychonauts 2 because it was developed with Microsoft money. It just is what it is. There's more to life...
@Fiendish-Beaver theres no reason to think that Indiana Jones is Multiplat and most Xbox Fans on Twitter and everywhere also call it an exclusive lol. Wolverine is PS only and the IP is also only borrowed by Disney (like Indiana Jones since Lucasfilm belongs to them)
@IonMagi Fair enough! I only use Twitter to discus politics (and it's just a cesspit and an echo-chamber). Maybe there are a better quality of contributor here and on the sister site, and that those have a better intuition as to the likely platform(s) for Indiana. My point still stands, if it were exclusive, why not announce it as such? There are undoubtedly people that would turn Green to play the game. From Microsoft's point of view, people thinking the game is exclusive to Xbox, even if it's not, is perhaps better than announcing the game to be multiplatform and perhaps going Blue instead. The game is probably further into development than Wolverine, but Sony announced that game to excite their fanbase, and motivate people to buy PlayStation. I have no real insight, but my gut-feeling is that Indiana will turn out to be multiplatform.
Is it a console exclusive or a timed exclusive? 2 very different types of exclusive, former meaning be coming to PC as well but not to any other consoles like Xbox/switch, the later coming to multiple platforms after a fixed time.
@Fiendish-Beaver I mean they didnt show anything about the Game except one Picture on Twitter lol so Informations about it in general are very sparse. Playstation didnt acknowledge it /retweet it tho which speaks for it being only PC/Xbox
@Sunnyviji The only comment thus far is 'Launch Exclusive', so I guess that could mean only on the PS5 for a set period (one month to two years, and anything in between) then all platforms/or just to (be specified) platforms...
After playing ME trilogy and loving it so much I actually was thinking about KOTOR and how I’d love to play it. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
But now we are getting not just a remaster but a REMAKE (for next gen) Awesome stuff
As much I like the notion of it being a console exclusive it feels odd to me, when I think KOTOR I think PC and Xbox, not PlayStation but again I am not complaining about the situation.
@Bleachedsmiles I disagree about it being a shame it's not exclusive. I'm all for certain franchises like Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank being kept exclusive (which Uncharted now apparently isn't), but Star Wars has fans across all platforms and has no association with Playstation. Yeah it's a good business move on Sony's part, but that doesn't mean it isn't scummy.
So I understand Sony publishing and getting timed-exclusive rights. But how do they assist in the development and it still land on another platform??
@GADG3Tx87
Man I don’t want to add to console war bs but somehow the last few days I saw Pure site was really flaming the console war with topics unrelated to Xbox like HFW. I think it’s appalling and I don’t even blame the users who are manipulated in that crap.
I’d call on Push and Pure to stop putting oil on fire.
It’s really sad that some people are just pawned into hating another community. 🙄
@ThroughTheIris56 I don't think it's a shame this game is eventually hitting Xbox (it's an Xbox game!). It's just a shame for Sony who had they managed to get it exclusive outright they'd have a good counter argument to all the big wrpgs Xbox now has the potential to come out with.
There's a real lack of diversity in the Sony stable.
@Culjoseth think ms did something similar with tomb raider?
I'd love to see The Old Republic MMO on consoles.
@Bleachedsmiles Oh ok, I thought it was off Xbox entirely, good thing it is coming. That being said, paying for timed exclusivity is just pathetic. In totally in favour Sony diversifying it's exclusiveline up, as long it makes the games itself. It's pathetic that Sony apparently have money to spend to screw over other consoles, but don't have the money to keep running beloved game studios.
@JJ2 Definitely agree about some of the flaming topics on PXB, though the author of them was one of the site authors that writes for all 3 sites, not the in-house staff dedicated to that page. But that was awkward and irritating, and while, as an Xbox player and regular on that site, it was a little obnoxious loading PXB and seeing Alloy and Kratos at the top every day there. I had to verify which site I was actually commenting on more than once.
To be fair to Sammy and crew here, I don't see that same kind of console war flaming here, generally, and Sammy's Sony criticism comes across as just that, not flame bait. It was very off-putting over there with discussion purely on Sony's (disgraceful blunder) on HFW pricing. And Damo incites flame wars over on NL, but usually not Sony/Microsoft targeted but is instead aimed at the known-biases within the NL community internally (and politics?)
@ThroughTheIris56 all three companies have paid for timed exclusives in the past and will do so again. It's called business. Nothing pathetic about it. Sony is publishing and collaborating on the game, of course they are going to make it at least timed exclusive. Without their money the game might not even have got a remake if they didn't.
@NEStalgia
Thank you for fair comment.
@Serialsid And I think it's scummy when the other 2 companies do it as well. To be clear, in cases were a company's funding is needed or makes the game better, I don't mind exclusivity. However it's Star Wars, I'm confident they could get funding anyway. I find it hard to believe that this project would have been lost without Sony. If Sony is legitimately actually providing help with the project, (wouldn't mind seeing sources) then fair enough. If not, paying to simply make the experience worse for other platforms is anti-consumer.
Every single time one platform holder gets some kind of exclusivity deal done, everyone else whines whilst the one with the deal says "well it's not as bad as...." It's become so boring at this point.
PlayStation diehards are still crying and complaining about Zenimax. Xbox diehards are still complaining about Spider-Man being absent from Avengers. And Platinum games got death threats when Bayonetta became a Nintendo exclusive. Everyone needs to calm down and grow up.
@ThroughTheIris56 no they are paying so their platform and the people/ players that invested in it get a great experience. That the platform has value. Exactly the same as MS buying Bethesda, they took the games away from the other 2 platforms so their platform has more value, gamepass has more value. MS didn't give a crap about doing this, it was just good business to them.
The article states Sony are collaborating and publishing the game, why would they let it release on the other platforms at the same time? Would make no sense.
@GADG3Tx87 yeah it could be timed exclusive a la FF7: R that has not released on Xbox and may never will.
Sounds like Sony made this happen.
What i think happened is that Aspyr was working simply on a port/remaster but would love to do a full remake, which is risky project for a small studio. But, some Sony kotor fan made this happen.
I imagine Aspyr will later become an aquisition candidate if it works out. Not unlike Kojima productions.
@Serialsid It's more valuable in comparison, but that's not because it's been made better, it's because value was taken away from competitors. It's an issue when anyone does it.
@Bleachedsmiles Pretty sure they only published it. As this has been stated that not only is Sony publishing but also helping develop it???
@ThroughTheIris56 I would argue it is better. The platform that the gamer has invested in gets the game first, probably the best version. That £450 box has more value! It's not Sony's problem that xbox owners have too wait. Same as its not MS problem Sony players will never get to play starfield. If MS could get away with it they would buy every studio and publisher available and lock them all up behind a gamepass pay wall. And uncle Phil would sleep soundly at night. Right or wrong has nothing to do with it.
@trev666 if only it were a right wing nutjob!
I hope they get Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni involved in this project. They are huge fans of the franchise and have proved time and time again that they know how to deliver what the fans want.
I appreciate people being pissed that KOTOR is a timed exclusive especially when it's not in the favour of a platform that had the original from the get go but I'd be more worried about the fact it's not the bioware team behind the original and this game is being rewritten for 2021 including a writer for the Mary Sue who likes to trash talk fans, hates on men and the 'patriarchy' especially if the don't like Rey and the Last Jedi.
This reeks of Masters of the Universe on Netflix and Kevin Smith the guy who announced he didn't like He-Man and then got awarded showrunning duties for a He-Man based show so don't expect the same game everyone knows and loves, I won't judge if it's better or worse until it's out but it doesn't bode well.
Lol calling it a “Japanese giant” when in reality it’s the 97th most valuable company by market cap haha
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