In an interview, James Ohlen (Baldur’s Gate 2, Dragon Age: Origins) speaks about his exit from BioWare and reveals what Star Wars: The Old Republic has to do with it. We almost got a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Online…
What does James Ohlen reveal? Shortly after his departure from Archetype, where the SciFi RPG Exodus is currently being developed, the veteran developer spoke about tough crunch phases, burnout, and his 22 years at BioWare. There, James Ohlen worked in leading positions on Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Especially exciting are Ohlen’s statements about the Star Wars MMORPG, for which he was given leadership of the new studio in Austin by BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. Ohlen admits that he actually has no interest in “massively multiplayer games” but ultimately took on the task out of loyalty to Muzyka and Zeschuk.
It quickly became clear that everyone except Ohlen wanted to build some kind of “WoW in space.” He would have preferred to make “Knights of the Old Republic Online” with a focused, 60-hour story campaign. However, he was unable to steer the project in that direction. The result was, in his view, a gigantic, diluted 200-hour monster with 8 different class storylines.
The Dream of Knights of the Old Republic Online
The plan for a reboot: However, James Ohlen did not want to give up on his vision just yet. Around 2015, he worked for about 6 months on a reboot of the MMORPG, which was to be called “Star Wars: The New Republic” and set several hundred years before the fall of the Republic.
For the project, the developer created a design document, presentations, and even a concept trailer: “It was the chance to realize Knights of the Old Republic Online; the chance to make up for everything I said we messed up.”
And the idea resonated. With Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni, he convinced the key decision-makers at Disney and Lucasfilm when it came to Star Wars. Even the former head of Electronic Arts, Patrick Söderlund, who actually hates Star Wars: The Old Republic, was on board. Ohlen looks back on this with particular pride: “That was one of the biggest successes of my career.”
In the end, it failed only because of a clear “no” from the EA board. The developer recalls:
We almost got a Star Wars: The New Republic until the EA board came into play, which still remembers the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the 300 million dollar costs. They wondered: ‘Why the hell should we spend a bunch more?’
James Ohlen in an interview with PCGamer
Rationally, Ohlen could understand this decision. However, the rejection felt discouraging and marks, for him, to this day, the beginning of his departure from BioWare.
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The Potential? It Depends…
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz assess the reboot? Generally, the idea of a modern Star Wars MMORPG with a slightly different focus is, of course, very exciting. The big question for me is whether the reboot would have replaced the original version like in Final Fantasy XIV, or whether “The New Republic” would have existed alongside “The Old Republic.”
The former variant would have been, in my view, a big mistake. SWTOR has proven to be a successful and reliable cash cow despite a difficult start and enormous development costs, maintaining a passionate fan base to this day. No other MMORPG currently on Steam has a better rating.
A second Star Wars MMORPG, which might have really kicked off development in 2017 or 2018, could hit the market right now, which hasn’t seen any ambitious MMORPG from the West in many years.
An online RPG with such a strong license behind it would likely crush the strong launch numbers of Lost Ark and New World—and quickly prove to be a financial success. Given the increasing age of established MMORPGs, “The New Republic” could even have had the potential to become the new king of the genre throne in the West.
However, this requires that the development runs successfully until the end (and that the game is fun and regularly receives new content). Most MMO projects notoriously struggle to even cross the finish line.
If someone were to ask me about a wish reboot, Star Wars: The Old Republic would certainly not be the first online RPG that comes to mind. SWTOR is still enjoyable today. Personally, I would find remakes of Warhammer Online or Lord of the Rings Online, or entirely new MMOs for both universes, much more exciting. What do you think? Feel free to share it with me in the comments!
For both IPs, there were also projects that had been worked on for years. The Warhammer MMORPG by Jack Emmert fell apart last year. The MMORPG for the Lord of the Rings by Amazon Games has also been showing bad signs for some time: No new MMORPG for Lord of the Rings: Amazon removes last hint about the project.
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