Originally released back in 2003 (!), Star Wars; Knights of the Old Republic turns 20 in just a few short years from now. After its inaugural release on Xbox, Knights of the Old Republic went on to sell out completely within 4 days, surpassing 250,000 units. Marking the fastest ever selling title on this platform, Knights went on to sell over 1.3m copies in the US alone by 2006, grossing over $44m for original developers BioWare and publisher LucasArts. It is no underestimation to say that since then the game has amounting something of a cult following.
And no surprise. Knights of the Old Republic went on to win over one-hundred and twenty-six awards within the gaming industry, including over 26 “game of the year” awards from various officiating bodies, including IGN’s Best Overall Game of the Year. Perhaps then, in the wake of the next gen console release it should be even less of a surprise that the die-hard fan base of this much lusted game have penned a petition for a remake. To date it now boasts over 14k signatures.
The petition reads,
“In July of 2023, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will turn 20. Yes, you heard right. Knights of the Old Republic will be celebrating it’s 20th Anniversary in just a few years’ time. The perfect time to release a remake of this classic game.”
Give “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” a 20th Anniversary Remake – change.org
Considering the success of the game, the petition goes on quite rightly, asking,
Please, leave the story as it is. Everything else though, can be built from the ground up. Game engines and graphics have come a long way since the early 2000s. Knights of the Old Republic’s game engine was the Odyssey engine, since 2013 all games BioWare have developed made on EA DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine. So imagine how a remake might look.”
Give “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” a 20th Anniversary Remake – change.org
May the Force of Public Opinion be With You!
It’s true that since the original release LucasArts is no more, with all Star Wars IP now acquired by divisive developer EA. BioWare too suffered a similar fate, but that might not be bad news for fans longing to see this dream become a reality. EA recently handed the keys to the franchise over to Respawn who delivered the absolutely excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019. BioWare too, recently announced the release of remastered , equally adorned Mass Effect trilogy. So it seems that the publisher has all of the pieces in place to placate fans of the original game.
Whether EA will bend to the will of the people remains to be seen. But it wouldn’t be the first its listened to the court of public opinion, having u-turned on the disastrous reception received by micro-transaction riddled Star Wars Battelfront II. And whatever way you spin it, there’s a lot of milk left in the Star Wars cash cow. If you’re as interested in seeing a remake as we are, then follow this link to the change.org petition and make your mark. And may the force be with you.
Source; change.org, gaming bible
“Video games are great. I should know, I’ve played some.”
Olly S, July 2020