Earlier this week, Disney and Lucasfilm made the exciting announcement that Lucasfilm Games has been revived. The long dormant gaming arm of Lucasfilm will once again be the banner under which all Star Wars games fall... which begs the incredibly exciting question: what Star Wars games might we expect to see under the new and improved Lucasfilm Games umbrella (ella, ella)?
While EA put out some genuinely great Star Wars games (eventually) Lucasfilm Games worked with some of the best developers out there during its tenure to produce some absolute bangers. Rogue Squadron. The original Battlefront games. Republic Commando. And of course, Knights Of The Old Republic and its sequel.
Way, way back in 2003, Mass Effect studio BioWare made a sprawling, epic RPG based on Star Wars called Knights Of The Old Republic, or KOTOR to its friends. Set thousands of years before Anakin Skywalker was shooting angry glances at grains of sand, KOTOR dove into a deep well of Star Wars lore that fleshed out the universe in all manner of new and unexpected ways. This wasn't the Star Wars universe we were used to. It was older. Angrier.
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It was a BioWare RPG made back when BioWare was allowed to do what it did best, too, which means it was an excellent RPG. Few studios did it better than BioWare back in 2003, and as the story gently attempted to pull you towards the light or dark side of the Force, it felt like your choices mattered. The characters you met mattered. And some of the plot twists were so daring that they make The Rise Of Skywalker look like it was put together by someone who'd taken a quick glance at the Star Wars subreddit.
My point is that KOTOR slapped. It slapped then, it slaps now, and it will continue to slap when we're all dead and gone. That's why the return of Lucasfilm Games is the perfect time to announce the long-awaited third game in the series.
As far as we're aware, EA still has the license to make Star Wars games until 2023. EA also owns BioWare, the driving force behind the original game. Working with Lucasfilm Games, EA and BioWare could finally come out swinging with the open-world single-player Star Wars RPG we've all been dying to see for the better part of the last two decades.
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Of course BioWare currently has its hands full with a few other projects, including new Mass Effect and Dragon Age entries... but does BioWare need to be the studio that gives us Knights Of The Old Republic III? Obsidian did an excellent job on the 2004 sequel, and there are so many studios out there these days who I imagine would jump at the chance to be handed the license to create a next-gen Star Wars RPG.
With Lucasfilm Games providing its experience and wisdom, Knights Of The Old Republic 3 could be reborn under a new developer. My personal picks would probably include Obsidian, CD Projekt RED, Eidos-Montréal, or Square Enix, but I'm sure there are countless teams out there who could nail it with the right guidance and resources... both things that Lucasfilm Games could - and should - provide.
Featured Image Credit: LucasfilmTopics: News, Knights of the Old Republic