BioWare doing more KOTOR

By Robert Purchese Published 13 February, 2008

Pandemic doing Lord of the Rings.

(Update: EA has since rubbished this nonsense and we've killed everyone involved.)

Electronic Arts has revealed in an analyst report that BioWare is working on another Knights of the Old Republic title as well as an MMOG.

This appears to be the new RPG that publisher boss John Riccitello promised in a recent financial call, and should apparently be out before April next year.

And while it scuppers hopes that KOTOR will become a persistent online world, it does at least clarify what the renewed LucasArts and BioWare partnership announced last October was for.

The same analyst report lists (pictures courtesy of ShackNews) Mercenaries developer Pandemic is doing a Lord of the Rings game - the same LOTR title Riccitello was unspecific about in the recent financial call. This, too, should be out before April next year.

Given the history of Pandemic this suggests we will be given a more action-focused slant on Middle-Earth, and that existing Tolkein project White Council is still as elusive as ever.

Electronic Arts bought VG Holding Corp., the parent company of BioWare and Pandemic, in October last year. Total costs rocketed up to around USD 860 million.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MBar #1 4 years ago

    Apathy is death!

    That's all I can remember about KotOR 2.

  • pauleyc #2 4 years ago

    Finally!

    First Mass Effect for PCs, now this. It's a good week for Bioware. Although I am a bit disappointed that the story arc won't be finished by Obsidian.

    /expects the comments thread to turn into KotOR-2-bashing

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #3 4 years ago

    Apathy is death!

    meh.





    ...urk!

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #4 4 years ago

    Am mucho excited.
    Edited by 1 at 13/02/08 @ 10:12

  • Fitzmogwai #5 4 years ago

    Let's hope they actually have the chance to finish it properly this time.

  • udat #6 4 years ago

    I just started playing through KoTOR again on the 360 and it's a magnificent game. The graphics are a bit ropey nowadays but the game mechanics and the story and characters are far better than Mass Effect. I liked Mass Effect, it's just nothing like as good.

    KoTOR2 was a huge disappointment for me, mostly because it was so clearly unfinished. Obsidian basically did exactly the same thing with NWN2 which was also a good but ultimately disappointing sequel to a Bioware game of unrivaled magnificence. For that reason I am happy that Bioware is making this new KoTOR.

  • Inigo #7 4 years ago

    I loved the more darker KOTOR2 that obsidian made. Its a shame that they didnt get a chance to make a follow up that wasnt rushed.

    Its nice to see that EA hasnt changed.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 4 years ago

    I'm already getting a bit sick of the Bioware/Pandemic EA takeover. For fuck's sake, just leave Bioware to develop their one game every two or three years, which may not be the most financially productive way of doing it, but definitely gets the best results. Once their games' quality starts to dip you will lose customers in spades. Pandemic doing LotR? Whatever. It will probably be a third-person open world action title like Mercenaries, but replace guns with bows and jeeps with horses.

  • Bloodloss #9 4 years ago

    Get in! Huzzah.

  • bengray66 #10 4 years ago

    Actually Triggerhappy, a LOTR game as a 3rd Person action adventure sounds ridiculously cool, if it was pulled off properly that is.

  • Dizzy #11 4 years ago

    Looks like BioWare is already taking it up the *** from EA. Quantity FTW. Good job guys. BioWare will be gone in 3 years by the looks of it.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #12 4 years ago

    a LOTR game as a 3rd Person action adventure sounds ridiculously cool

    The trouble might be if it's more Destroy All Humans than Mercenaries. Or, god help us, it's some sort of LOTR:Battlefront.

    [rifles through Pandemic back-catalogue]

    A fantasy take on Full Spectrum Warrior might be interesting though (but laughably unlikely).

  • SlackMaster #13 4 years ago

    Can't wait for a the next KOTOR... Wtih Bioware making it there's no doubt it'll be great.

  • CosmicFuzz #14 4 years ago

    I don't get it. You all moan for ages about wanting KOTOR 3, then when Bioware announce they're making it, you all moan about how they're being forced to "churn out sequels." Just be happy it's being made FFS - if it wasn't EA backing it you wouldn't have a problem with it. What do you expect? "Pimp My Lightsaber?" "Need For Speed: Pod Racing?"

    If you don't like it, don't buy it. I for one am damn happy it's being made.

  • prolific8 #15 4 years ago

    Yes yes yes yes yes YES! CANNOT WAIT!

  • underscore #16 4 years ago

    Without wishing to rain on anyone's anti-EA parade, perhaps they're just being given the resource and support to get games finished quicker.

    More support to fully finish games + more Bioware games = good thing surely?

  • _Price_ #17 4 years ago

    YES!

    I know, I know: What a goddamn geek, but: Y-E-S!

    Now EA: Don't even THINK of balls-ing the whole thing up with a rushed release schedule.

  • Drpwnage #18 4 years ago

    The various BioWare/Pandemic projects were all underway before the EA takeover and based on EA's recent performance I would expect that BioWare will get the time and resource to polish future games.

    Roll on Dragon Age and KOTOR III!



  • marilena #19 4 years ago

    "NWN2 was a good but ultimately disappointing sequel to a Bioware game of unrivaled magnificence"

    /vomits

  • Razorus #20 4 years ago

    @paulyc:

    Dude, Kotor 2 was a major letdown. The story wasn't as good as the first game and it was just an unfinished mess. Still enjoyable but the first one was just amazing. There are ways of finishing the story arc AND connecting it to the unfinished one of the first game too. I reckon each player will be their own new Jedi in their search for Revan and The Exile. Maybe we can even go to the Unknown Regions?

    Anyway, this news has confirmed what we all suspected and I'm very happy about it!

  • Antwandemarco #21 4 years ago

    The Emperor: Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends, up there on the sanctuary moon, are walking into a trap, as is your Rebel fleet. It was *I* who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them. Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.

  • Clive_Dunn #22 4 years ago

    Same elite troops who get hammered by the Ewoks ?

  • TheSnotGoblin #23 4 years ago

    I don't know why everyone gets their pants in a twist over EA owning Bioware. Bioware/Pandemic have been "under the thumb" of EA's CEO John Riccitiello since November 2005 when he was Managing Director of Elevation Partners. No one gave a shit until he moved to EA and bought a company he'd already been working with for two years.

    The seething EA-hate is good for Bioware in a way; all customer dissatisfaction can henceforth be blamed on EA.

  • pauleyc #24 4 years ago

    @Razorus:

    Dude, Kotor 2 was a major letdown. The story wasn't as good as the first game and it was just an unfinished mess.

    For me the sequel had a more mature storyline, much better than the (in retrospect) rather straightforward plot of the first game. The relationship of both games is similar to the first two films of the original trilogy, with ESB being considered "the darker one".

    Unfinished mess - well, this is something that Obsidian has acknowledged but I admit my perspective is a bit skewed since I played the game on a PC, with both the official patch and the restored higher res movies and better sounds assets applied.
    Edited by 1 at 13/02/08 @ 12:45

  • Schiraman #25 4 years ago

    Cool, looking forward to KotOR III then :)

    I enjoyed both of the previous games, it was just a real shame that Obsidian wasn't given enough time to finish KotOR II. Still Bioware have certainly been taking their time getting round to doing the third game, so I guess that's a hopeful sign ;)

  • Barkotron #26 4 years ago

    ""NWN2 was a good but ultimately disappointing sequel to a Bioware game of unrivaled magnificence"

    /vomits"

    Quite.

    NWN2 was an exercise in just how annoying it's possible to make NPCs. I'd happily punch the fuckers who came up with the student sorceror bint or the emo ranger "I'm so evil" idiot if I met them in the street. It was also a sequel to probably the least interesting, most paint-by-numbers RPG I've ever played. Unrivalled in its blandness rather than magnificence really.

  • Royal Fool #27 4 years ago

    pauleyc: The original Xbox version didn't really have an ending to tie up the numerous plot threads (most were left dead in the water), as well as an amazing quantity of game-breaking bugs and unfinished elements. Of course, Obsidian didn't have a very long time to create the whole game, leaving LucasArts as the culprit responsible for rushing the game out.

    But now that Bioware and Pandemic are under EA control, I expect them, too, to feel more pressure regarding release dates and project milestones. We've never heard official word of these two games until now, and the suggested April 2009 launch window doesn't inspire a lot of hope. Hell, EA is the LotR movie license holder, so Pandemic couldn't really have begun working on that game until they were acquired by EA in January (unless they were already developing it in a publishing partnership, which doesn't seem too likely).

  • dolphan #28 4 years ago

    Joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy. Joy.

  • Gl3n #29 4 years ago

    KOTOR :D

  • OfficialBlue #30 4 years ago

    Yeah boi!

  • Kelduum #31 4 years ago

    /sees all the EA-hate.

    Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
    Through passion, I gain strength.
    Through strength, I gain power.
    Through power, I gain victory.
    Through victory, my chains are broken.
    More KotOR shall set me free.

  • RexRunti #32 4 years ago

    OK a few things.

    1. Yay!
    2. I'm assuming the game will still be published by Lucasarts not EA (think Sonic RPG)
    3. The characters in NWN2 were great, people who hate Quara can also use Sand. People generally hate the charcters not their script. It is a sign of a good cast when different people identitfy with different characters.
    4. Yay!
    5. ...while it scuppers hopes that KOTOR will become a persistent online world... this is a good thing. Proper story ftw!
    6. KOTOR 2 was better in almost every single way to KOTOR 1 but didn't have a proper ending and was clearly unfinished. It also didn't have the underlying fun of the original. However KOTOR 1 was greater than the sum of it's parts and had some wonderful twists where as KOTOR 2 smacked of missed opportunities making KOTOR 1 the better game overall.
    7. Yay!

    Anyway I hope you can stupidly evil and manipulitive as opposed to a thug with a light saber. ("No I won't kill that young teenage alien girl, i'll get her best friend to do it as that will be funnier" or "hey juliet's dad did you know that your son was killed by romeo not eaten by wolves as anyone with half brain would realise. Why don't you grab a bunch of battle droids and start a war?" instead of "please brave jedi can you spare a few credits?" "eat force-lightning scum!";)

  • Guv #33 4 years ago

    niiiice!

  • thesnowman #34 4 years ago

    "6. KOTOR 2 was better in almost every single way to KOTOR 1 but didn't have a proper ending and was clearly unfinished. It also didn't have the underlying fun of the original. However KOTOR 1 was greater than the sum of it's parts and had some wonderful twists where as KOTOR 2 smacked of missed opportunities making KOTOR 1 the better game overall. "

    Couldnt agree more. In Kotor 2 some of the ideas of like turning your friends to either the dark or like side were good and some the other touches, but they were all blatantly unfinished. Plot point came to an abrupt end (robot factory planet) and the ending was crap. I have played KOTOR 1 more times than any other game and I still have fond memories when first discovered my identity and KOTOR 1 had better characters than 2, Carth, Bastila and Canderous (I know he was in 2, but not the same)

    Cant wait for 3 and really pleased that BIOWARE are doing, hopefully Drew Karpyshyn will write the story agan as he helped write KOTOR 1 and was Lead writer for Mass Effect. He also has a KOTOR timeline star wars novel out.

  • Evolution #35 4 years ago

    Kotor 2 > Kotor

    The very short production time/bugs/unfinished ending(s) are well documented, but in all possible terms it was a far more interesting game to play than the Bioware effort. Frankly all the Bioware rpgs I've played have been bland compared to Black Isle/Obsidian, so I'm not too happy they are making #3, but hey I'm still going to play it...

  • matrim83 #36 4 years ago

    /Zoidberg

    Hurray.

  • dustrat #37 4 years ago

    I really hope they use a refined version of the combat system from Mass Effect in Kotor 3. And hopefully they throw a glance or two on the inventory system...

  • Vin #38 4 years ago

    SOLD.

  • growleroo #39 4 years ago

    Yippee!

    Just that. :)

  • NegativeZero #40 4 years ago

    Personally I preferred Obsidian's take to Bioware's. Chris Avellone is an incredibly good writer, and Bioware's stuff never has that dark, mature tone that he's so good at. I just wish Lucasarts hadn't been dicks and forced them to push out the game when it was so obviously undercooked - if it had been finished properly it would have been clearly the better of the two games.

    Still a bit bummed that Bioware aren't working on a KotOR MMO, too. :(

  • TriffStar #41 4 years ago

    I don't get all these people saying that EA are going to ruin Biowares reputation. They went into this deal with LucasArts to make an untitled game months and months ago..Before EA took over i believe. LucasArts will be publishing this, not EA.

  • $olokid #42 3 years ago

    Yeah, I mean, why would EA publish this? In my eyes the idea of that is beyond stupid!