Possible Star Wars KOTOR MMO Evidence Surfaces
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:37 am
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166834
After BioWare and LucasArts made a deal last year to work together, the internet was ablaze with speculation about a new Star Wars MMO in the works. It makes sense considering the popularity of the Knights of the Old Republic series from BioWare and the much poorer status among fans of the non-BioWare Star Wars Galaxies. We more recently reported that the game was in fact a new MMO set in the KOTOR framework, a claim that was quickly denied by Electronic Arts.
Today, a tipster contacted 1UP with portions of a script for what was said to be a "Star Wars online" game. The script's description of the game reads:
After BioWare and LucasArts made a deal last year to work together, the internet was ablaze with speculation about a new Star Wars MMO in the works. It makes sense considering the popularity of the Knights of the Old Republic series from BioWare and the much poorer status among fans of the non-BioWare Star Wars Galaxies. We more recently reported that the game was in fact a new MMO set in the KOTOR framework, a claim that was quickly denied by Electronic Arts.
Today, a tipster contacted 1UP with portions of a script for what was said to be a "Star Wars online" game. The script's description of the game reads:
"This is a role-playing game set in the historical past of the Star Wars universe. Jedi and Sith battle across the galaxy with the power of the Force and are joined by soldiers, politicians and nobles. Players must choose the destinies of heroes and villains in a thrilling and dangerous universe."
Historical past? Jedi and Sith battling across the galaxy? To we Star Wars nerds, that sounds quite a bit like the "Old Republic" timeline, which BioWare Senior Writer Drew Karpyshyn helped flesh out with the KOTOR series and by penning the Darth Bane novels.
The script goes on to show an exchange between the player and a character named Fuse, a naive bomb designer. The portions of the script that we received are fairly heavy with dialog, which isn't typical for an MMORPG, but it does read very much like a script to a KOTOR game. This could mean that the two projects are still separate. On the other hand, the game was described to the tipster as an MMO, and "heavy dialog" is practically BioWare's calling card.
1UP contacted LucasArts about the script pages we saw, but unsurprisingly their response was not forthcoming: ""We don't have any comment beyond what we've already announced."
This isn't quite a smoking gun blaster yet, and our contact isn't Deep Throat; but the script looked legitimate and the style and tone of it shares a lot in common with the BioWare games we already know, including the more recent (but fairly similar) Mass Effect. We'll keep you posted as more news surfaces.
Even if it isn't much to go on