Arguably, the biggest surprise at The Game Awards 2025 was the announcement of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. Leaker Kurakasis had mentioned that there would be a Star Wars game whose title ended with 'Old Republic', but everyone thought it would be a new look at the Knights of the Old Republic remake.
Instead, viewers were treated to the unveiling of a brand new project, spearheaded by Casey Hudson, the Game Director and Producer of the original KOTOR (as well as Game Director of the Mass Effect trilogy). Hudson founded a new developer called Arcanaut Studios, headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, with additional offices in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The fact is, the studio's foundation was relatively recent, having been officially dated to July 2025. This makes sense, given that Hudson had previously been busy with another studio, Humanoid Origin, which he founded years ago and had to shut down in late 2024 due to a lack of funding.
This realization chilled a bit of the excitement surrounding Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic as players realized it would take a long time before they could play it. It didn't help that other major Star Wars game projects, such as the KOTOR remake and Quantic Dream's Star Wars: Eclipse, suffered a similar fate: being announced way too early. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier compounded those fears in a message posted on the social network Bluesky:
Last night's biggest surprise was Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, led by Casey Hudson, who directed KOTOR (and Anthem). Exciting news for lots of people… but Lucasfilm says the studio was founded this year, which means that 2030 is an optimistic guess. Maybe it'll be a PlayStation 7 game.
Schreier's guess was indeed solid on the surface, since the average development timeframe for a triple-A game is five years at the least. However, Casey Hudson himself later chimed in on the release window, telling fans to discard the 2030 rumors as the game would launch before that year.
Given the source, we have to trust that there is indeed a plan to get the game out in four years at the most. Is that even possible, though? Sure, depending on a couple of factors. The first is the game's scope. While the details are scant at this point (other than the project's status as a spiritual successor to KOTOR rather than a direct sequel), Arcanaut and Lucasfilm explicitly said this will be a 'narrative-driven' action RPG.
In current developer lingo, this definition usually suggests a tight, story-focused experience that won't feature expansive open worlds with plenty of side content and activities. In short, don't expect to be roaming vast regions of Tattooine or Coruscant or Hoth or what have you as you solve problems for fairly inconsequential citizens of the galaxy. Instead, as Hudson noted in his interview with the official Star Wars website, the developers will focus on delivering a 'powerful, cinematic adventure driven by player agency, narrative depth, and immersive world-building'.
This isn't so different from the original Knights of the Old Republic game, which was relatively linear and only included around seven and a half hours of side content, according to the average playthroughs listed by HowLongToBeat.com. With this in mind, it would not be impossible to see Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic launch at some point in 2029. Another potential accelerator could be the use of AI during development, which might certainly cut down development times if used effectively. However, it may not be well-received by some fans.
Even so, we have at least a few years to wait before we can play this title. Thankfully, a recent report revealed that the KOTOR remake is still alive and being worked on at Mad Head Games. Fingers crossed, but it should certainly launch before 2029, if all goes well. The same goes for Eclipse.
To round up the slate of upcoming games set in the faraway galaxy created by George Lucas, Respawn is making the third and final entry in the Star Wars: Jedi series. The second game launched in April 2023, so we might be looking at late 2027 or early 2028 for the next installment.
Star Wars fans will have two new games to play next year, anyway: the newly announced arcade racing game Galactic Racer and the turn-based tactics game Zero Company.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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