- EA recently announced that they’d be releasing a remaster in 2021.
- Fans seem to believe that Mass Effect would be the game in question.
- In my opinion, more signs point towards Knights of the Old Republic.
EA recently announced its plans for the 2021 financial year, and it has got a lot of fans excited. One of the most interesting bullet points on the list tweeted out by Daniel Ahmad was about some “exciting remasters” coming soon. While the exact nature of the remasters in question wasn’t revealed, it sent a lot of fans into speculation overdrive.
The big name that seems to be on most people’s lips is Mass Effect. Many fans took the announcement of the remasters as a hint that the sci-fi RPGs would be making a comeback. The truth of the matter might actually be a little different from what people were expecting.
Why I Don’t Think That It’s Mass Effect
Mass Effect Andromeda was the latest game in the series. While it received a fair amount of praise from critics, fan reception was a little bleaker. As such, Andromeda massively underperformed sales-wise when compared with EA’s expectations.
Regardless of whether you liked Andromeda or not, it likely caused a loss of confidence in the IP for EA. Even if a remaster could possibly restore some of that confidence, it’s more than likely that EA would look to a game that would be a guaranteed success instead. Which game might that be?
Enter Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic was a massively successful franchise even though it was only made up of two titles. The first game scored in the 90s on sites like Metacritic, with the sequel only just below it. Unlike the recent Mass Effect game, fans seem to be in agreement with critics about the level of quality of the KOTOR games.
Both Knights of the Old Republic games sold pretty damn well and are still talked about to this day. You can get both games on PC and the original is even available on Android to play on the go, having accrued over half a million installs on Android alone.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has received a lot of attention for its single-player focus. | Source: EA
The Direction of the Star Wars Games
Another big clue that KOTOR might be the game up for remaster is the current state of the Star Wars franchise. The upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has set fans ablaze with hope, cutting out micro-transactions and bringing the series back to a narrative-driven single-player experience.
With the amount of hype in a post-loot-box controversy world, it is likely that EA will seek to chase this trend. Knight of the Old Republic is the perfect candidate for a remaster when you take this into account. It has a strong presence in the mind of fans, it’s based on one of the biggest IPs in the world, and fans have been crying out for easier access to the second game in the series for a long, long time.
When you take all these factors into account, it seems much more likely that KOTOR will be the target of a remaster over Mass Effect. I for one would welcome a game from 2003 getting a much-needed HD coat of paint over a last-gen game any day of the week.
This article was edited by Gerelyn Terzo.
