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Who precisely pulled the plug on the deliberate downloadable content material for Aspyr’s Nintendo Swap port of Star Wars Knights of the Previous Republic II: The Sith Lords? That is a stunning new query that has risen to the floor due to a brand new submitting by Aspyr in its movement to dismiss a class-action lawsuit levied in opposition to the corporate over the DLC’s cancellation.
As first reported by Axios, Aspyr’s movement to dismiss the lawsuit relies on an argument that plaintiffs have already been offered aid over their grievance that they had been “duped” by preliminary advertising and marketing for the sport that promised to revive content material reduce from its unique launch. “All had been provided a substitute product value greater than the one they bought and none requested a refund,” Aspyr’s attorneys said in a submitting.
It is a fairly truthful argument. Nevertheless it was a remark by co-CEO Ted Saloch that gave a way of drama to the entire affair. He said that “Aspyr believed it might be capable to launch the content material, however a 3rd occasion objected and Aspyr was unable to take action.”
“A 3rd occasion?” Which third occasion? And why? What could be a humdrum enterprise dispute in lots of different cases positive aspects a complete new sort of relevance once you comply with the journey of this legendary reduce content material—itself already a chunk of obscure Star Wars mythology.
Who might need objected to the discharge of the KOTOR II DLC?
Let’s run by the events.
First, there’s the Star Wars license holder itself: The Walt Disney Firm. Disney bought Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012 for $4 billion, making it chargeable for all of the licenses granted by Lucasfilm subsidiary LucasArts. It might have loads of sway over what content material Aspyr releases. Did Disney change its thoughts on making this unreleased content material out there to the general public? (They nonetheless will not launch a theatrical reduce of the unique Star Wars trilogy in any case…)
Subsequent, we should always contemplate the unique developer of the reduce content material: Obsidian Leisure. Would any particular person at Obsidian object to the reduce storylines and areas being lastly placed on sale? Presumably—however so would possibly by dad or mum firm Microsoft, which purchased the studio in 2018, years after KOTOR II went out the door. If Obsidian and Microsoft by no means earned income on this content material… why ought to Aspyr?
And eventually we should always briefly forged our gaze upon Nintendo itself—an unlikely however nonetheless related suspect on this case. Aspyr’s KOTOR II port launched in a tough state, and a game-breaking crash prevented some gamers from progressing previous a sure level within the recreation. Did the platform holder have any issues over DLC stuffed with never-released content material that might influence an already unstable product on its storefront?
I ought to stress that Nintendo isn’t the most certainly candidate right here however after Sony yanked CD Projekt Crimson’s Cyberpunk 2077 from its digital retailer after the sport’s unstable launch, we have to contemplate that platform homeowners in every single place are maintaining a detailed eye on video games which will drive gamers to request refunds over a product they cannot use.
This might sadly not be the primary time Aspyr needed to cancel a Star Wars challenge over third occasion objections. In 2022 the studio “paused improvement” on a ground-up remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Previous Republic following the displaying of a vertical slice to its enterprise companions. Mentioned remake is now within the arms of one other studio owned by dad or mum firm Embracer.
Possibly a kind of identical companions was the one who objected to the discharge of the KOTOR II DLC…
What is the massive deal over the reduce KOTOR II content material anyway?
In case you are not as brain-poisoned as I’m about Star Wars, this entire enterprise could seem reasonably overblown. Why ought to recreation builders care about content material reduce from the ultimate launch of a recreation? Plenty of video games have to chop content material on their method to completion. What’s so particular right here?
The unreleased content material for KOTOR II has reached mythological standing as a result of it is a high-profile train within the act of online game preservation and it fleshes out underexplored story components in an already textured and nuanced entry within the Star Wars universe. That is like catnip for anybody who has an equal ardour for Star Wars and the complexities of recreation improvement.
We largely know what would have been in Aspyr’s deliberate DLC. The reduce content material has been out there in dummied-out code that was a part of KOTOR II‘s launch for a very long time and modders have spent years bringing it to a playable state. In 2015, the celebs aligned and Aspyr was in a position to work with modders Zbigniew Staniewicz, aka Zbyl, along with his accomplice Darth Stoney to permit them to launch a secure model of the reduce content material on the Steam Workshop.
By the best way, 2015 could be after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and earlier than Microsoft bought Obsidian Leisure. Fascinating.
Accessing the unreleased content material permits gamers to see the conclusion of underexplored storylines that increase a number of the most complicated and imaginative ethical questions within the Star Wars universe—and provides builders a greater sense of the complete recreation Obsidian initially meant to launch. A whole bunch of recreation builders need to make brutal compromises to get their video games out the door with no hope that items they had been obsessed with will ever see the sunshine of day.
This can be a uncommon occasion the place the items that had been reduce to fulfill deadlines managed to slide out the door after launch.
Releasing it as commercially out there DLC would have been the ultimate step in a journey lengthy thought unimaginable but due to the objection of an unnamed third occasion, that step was not taken…for now.
The unreleased items of Star Wars: Knights of the Previous Republic II: The Sith Lords have an interesting method of effervescent to the floor time and time once more.
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