KOTOR2 dev Obsidian "sad" about LucasArts, "would love to" pitch a Star Wars game

Obsidian Entertainment, developer of Knights of the Old Republic 2, "would love to" pitch a new Star Wars game to Disney.

That's promising, given that when Disney ended all internal LucasArts game development earlier this month, it did so saying "we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimising the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games".

In other words: "Pitch us your Star Wars game ideas, we're keener than ever to greenlight them."

Wrote Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart in an email to me last night: "I had seen the news about LucasArts which was sad to see. LucasArts was a great supporter of Obsidian when we were first starting out and many of their games are ones I, personally, count as favourites.

"As for Obsidian pitching a Star Wars game, or games for that matter, we would love to. Getting to work within the Star Wars world was a tonne of fun and it would be great to get to do so again."

Feargus Urquhart revealed in February that Obsidian even had new Star Wars pitch that LucasArts had both seen and liked. The pitch sat chronologically between Star Wars films Episode 3 and 4.

"It's the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi. It's Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK," explained Feargus Urquhart to Rock, Paper, Shotgun at the time.

"You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few."

Obsidian's Chris Avellone came up with "a really cool story" and one of the studio's best ever pitches, said Urquhart.

But that was before Disney bought George Lucas' empire and said worrying things about how it would "focus more on social and mobile than we are on console". Eek!

Perhaps now, though, Obsidian will muster the courage to pitch old Mickey Mouse ears a new Star Wars game. And perhaps Disney will listen.

Obsidian's Knights of the Old Republic 2 was thrown together in a year to follow the success of BioWare's KOTOR1. Despite that, KOTOR2 was longer, deeper and more complex. But it was also unfinished and full of bugs. Thankfully it made a big enough impression that a group of wonderful fans took it upon themselves to finish the game.

Chris Avellone, KOTOR2 lead designer, publicly praised their efforts, saying The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod team deserved "a lot of kudos". And they do - well done again!

KOTOR2 is available on Steam for £7. You can find The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod on ModDB.