It feels as though we now live in the age of anniversary editions. The old classics which we all grew up on are now being given fresh coats of paint for both new and older generations of gamers. Responding to a fan on Twitter, Microsoft executive Phil Spencer put his opinion forward on the idea of an anniversary edition for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Revealing that he considered it one of his favourite RPGs, the likelihood of a remake similar to what we saw with Halo Anniversary in 2011 is still quite low.
@JacobTaylorN7 I like the idea. No idea how the rights would work on that now with all the changes. I'll put a vote in.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 26, 2014
Simply put – the rights to the IP are not in place. Despite the impact KOTOR has had on the gaming community, and very clear support from the fans, Spencer later goes on to clarify that he was only speaking as a fan himself, and that if a remake actually came about, it would be from Electronic Arts’ department. Further complicating things is Disney’s acquisition of the Star Wars rights back in 2012, and the question of whether Bioware would be responsible for development or if another studio would handle it.
If an anniversary edition was released, what would you like to see come from it? Would just a simple update to the graphics and sounds suffice? Or would you like to see extra content, new classes, or maybe even a combination of KOTOR 1 & 2 in the release? Personally I’d love to see some new additions, similar to the in-depth mod content that has emerged from the game’s dedicated community.