Obsidian Wants To Make A Star Wars Game Set Between The Trilogies
This article is more than 2 years old
While there’s been plenty of news about how Star Wars is going to expand on the big screen in the wake of Disney’s Lucasfilm purchase, there hasn’t been much mentioned about one front where Star Wars has often excelled: the world of games. We know the intriguing Star Wars: 1313 is still in the works, and the Old Republic MMO is still kicking along, but what could the future hold? As it happens, a veteran Star Wars game developer is keen to return to that galaxy far, far away.
Speaking to Rock, Paper Shotgun, CEO Feargus Urquhart says that Obsidian is hoping to lobby Disney to let them return to the universe they explored masterfully in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. That 2005 game suffered thanks to a rushed release date, but even flawed the game built wonderfully on the ground established by BioWare’s original Knights of the Old Republic. The thought of Obsidian stepping back into George Lucas’ sandbox should excite gamers and Star Wars fans alike.
Urquhart definitely thinks they’ve got an idea that merits a return to the Star Wars universe. He says, “I would say it’s within the top three pitches we’ve ever come up with.” That’s a bold statement, but does he have any details to share? First, the potential Obsidian game hopes to take advantage of the fact that Star Wars Extended Universe history stretches out both backwards and forwards from the original trilogy, so there’s no shortage of potential. The era explored by the KOTOR games is currently the playground for the Old Republic MMO, but that’s okay, because Obsidian has a different timeframe in mind. Urquhart continues:
We pitched a between-Episode III and Episode IV game [to LucasArts]. Because we think that timeframe is super interesting. It’s the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it’s Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few. So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story.
We also latched onto it because it has elements people remember, but not the stories. It can just completely not involve [the movies]. It can tease them, but nothing else.
From the sound of things, this is an idea Obsidian pitched prior to the Disney buyout. Now that the Mouse is in charge, that could be good or bad for Obsidian’s dream Star Wars project. Disney has made it abundantly clear that they want to expand the Star Wars franchise dramatically across multiple media, so there’s no question there will be more games in the works eventually. In the meantime, Obsidian is letting the dust settle a bit before they approach Disney about their ideas. “We haven’t [talked with Disney yet],” says Urquhart. “We’re kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that’s one of my next big things to do. To kind of go over there and [get the ball rolling again].”
