Update: A spokesperson for Sony sent Kotaku a statement regarding the delisted Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic reveal trailer, stating it was due to licensing issues.
Here’s what Sony told Kotaku:
“As part of normal business, we delist assets with licensed music when the licenses expire.”
Curiously, this begs the question: why have the involved parties allowed the license associated with the music of the KOTOR remake reveal trailer to expire? Game Informer will update this story if it learns more.
The original story continues below…
Sony kicked off a September 2021 PlayStation Showcase by formally revealing a rumored remake of the classic RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, for PlayStation 5. That was the last we heard of it, though, save for a Bloomberg report the following year that stated the project was on indefinite development hold as a result of major staff departures.
Now, it seems Sony and PlayStation are removing most traces of the KOTOR remake, deleting tweets and hiding the reveal trailer on its YouTube channel, as reported by Kotaku.
Yesterday, on the Gaming Leaks And Rumors subreddit, user TricolorChutoy posted that the 2021 PlayStation Showcase KOTOR remake reveal trailer had been recently delisted. That same day, Twitter user Crusader II Elessar posted the same thing, noting, however, that in the full 2021 PlayStation Showcase video, the KOTOR remake trailer remained. With some more digging, Crusader II Elessar found that PlayStation had seemingly deleted every tweet mentioning the remake, save for the one below that also mentions other games.
Stay tuned after the Showcase! We’ll have more updates from the teams behind:
🔵 God of War Ragnarök
🔵 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake
🔵 Updates on other new PlayStation Studios titles— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 9, 2021
Furthermore, with some Wayback Machine tinkering, they learned that a 2022 snapshot of PlayStation’s Twitter showed that a different tweet exclusively about the KOTOR remake still existed, meaning its deletion happened between last year and now.
Game Informer has reached out to Sony and PlayStation about the hidden trailer and deleted tweets and will update this story if comment or statement is received.
As for speculation on why PlayStation might be doing this, it stems from the remake’s developer: Aspyr Media. Aspyr is owned by Embracer Group, which has been canceling games and closing studios in light of a current “restructuring program.” After Embracer Group was “informed that one major strategic partnership that has been negotiated for seven months will not materialize,” or in other words, the collapse of a $2 billion deal as reported by Video Games Chronicle, it implemented this restructuring program.
Given all of that, it wouldn’t be surprising if Aspyr, which Embracer Group acquired in 2021, was affected by the restructuring and the KOTOR remake project canceled. However, with no official word on the project, that’s speculation for now.
[Source: Kotaku, Video Games Chronicle]
Why do you think PlayStation is deleting mention of this KOTOR remake? Let us know in the comments below!
