‘Knights of the Old Republic II’: Unexpected Cancellation Stuns Fans

Aspyr has some devastating news for fans of the hit Star Wars video game Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time. Released on Xbox in 2004 and PC in 2005, the game was a sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and set 4,000 years before Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The game was developed by BioWare in their earlier years when they started to become more popular with gamers and is an RPG that lets players choose if they wanted to be a Jedi, Sith, or something kind of in-between.

The game was recently re-released by the development team at Aspyr in Austin, TX, which is mostly known for porting games to other platforms and mobile devices. The re-release was announced alongside a remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and teased it would be releasing content that was originally only accessible on the PC. Aspyr has some unfortunate news for fans waiting for it.

Knights of the Old Republic II DLC Canceled

Aspyr announced that the planned Restored Content DLC mentioned at the end of the launch trailer for the re-release has now been canceled. The news was revealed on the developer’s Twitter. 

Aspyr has promised to give anyone who bought the game before this announcement was made, a digital code for any of the Star Wars titles they have ported to Switch or a copy of the PC version of KOTOR 2. The list is as follows:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords (PC)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Switch)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Switch)
Star Wars: Republic Commando (Switch)
Star Wars: Episode I Racer (Switch)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight Academy (Switch)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast (Switch)

Fans have been speculating as to what caused the cancellation since there was no official word on why. Fans speculated maybe they rubbed the modder who restored the content on PC the wrong way or refused to credit them. The modder was quick to tell everyone that the reason for the cancellation was not due to anything involving their working relationship with Aspyr and being credited.

“I made the mod. The above is 100 percent false, and I’m sad you got so many upvotes because that rumor is now going to spread,…Aspyr was great to work with, and they offered to credit the whole team long before I even asked about it.” “Aspyr did nothing wrong. Quote me on that. Shame it ended the way it did….I have nothing but good things to say about Aspyr and our cooperation over the past eight years.”

Whatever the reason, it is another example of overpromising and underdelivering.

Broken Promises

Gaming is full of broken promises to fans. It is a sad truth many gamers are not a fan of and developers wish they don’t have to do. Overwatch 2 was the last big example of this until recently with this Star Wars update. Overwatch 2 was supposed to be getting a big story mode update with tons of customizable options for heroes and fun stuff that could be enjoyed in a single-player. Its very existence would make up for shutting down Overwatch 1 and replacing it with the over-monetized Overwatch 2. 

Unfortunately, it was all scrapped and the reasons are somewhat understandable. It doesn’t make any of it less annoying since many were looking forward to it. It was the only thing that would have brought me back to the world of Overwatch and many others feel the same. 

via Overwatch Wiki

The heartbreaking ones are the ones that were previously announced like Midnight Suns’ Nintendo Switch edition being canceled with no explanation, Ghostbusters the Video Game Remastered not getting any multiplayer, or Marvel’s Avengers being shutdown before all the announced content even getting close to being released. Some developers do what they can to try and keep their promises like 343 does with Halo Infinite.

This latest misfire is a surprising one with Aspyr having lost the assignment of remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The studio needs some wins and this seemed like it could be an easy one. I don’t know the reasons for it being canceled other than it possibly being a limitation they ran into on the Nintendo Switch’s outdated hardware. That is harder to believe more and more, especially with games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the console.

Whatever their reasons, this is just another disappointing broken promise made with at least some attempts at amends. Those who bought it thinking it would have that DLC, it would be too late for a refund at this point and Nintendo isn’t going to give it to you as well. I’d say just take the free game and chalk this up to overpromising.

“Did you come here for answers? There are none.” Darth Sion, KOTOR 2

Author: Spider-Mike

Spider-Mike is a staff writer who is a regular co-host on the let's play channel Rage Select and regular contributor to One of US.net for over 5 years. Born in Austin, but raised on the border of Texas and Mexico. He has been gaming since the NES and jokes that he has a Masters in Spider-Man, Superman, and Dragon Ball.