Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic — Our burning questions and release date speculation

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Wow, it’s true! A brand new Star Wars video game, taking place during the Old Republic, has just been revealed.

The new game, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic—often shortened to FotOR—was announced at The Game Awards last night, December 11th, 2025.

FotOR is a brand-new, story-driven, single-player action role-playing game, according to its official description.

Casey Hudson, the director behind the beloved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (often called KotOR) and the Mass Effect series, is leading the development of this game.

It appears Hudson has started a new company called Arcanaut Studios in Canada, and this project is their first undertaking.

Aside from the impressive CGI trailer, we don’t have a lot of information yet. So, here are some key questions we have, starting with the most important: when will this be released?

When is the Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic release date?

There’s no confirmed release date for Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, and it likely won’t be announced for a while.

According to a recent press release from the game’s developer, Arcanaut Studios, the company was founded in July 2025.

With game development now taking several years, we don’t expect the game to be released before 2028. Even that timeline feels a little hopeful, but we’re still optimistic!

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Is Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic a sequel to KotOR?

According to the official Star Wars website, the game Fate of the Old Republic isn’t a direct follow-up to the earlier Knights of the Old Republic games.

Based on the timeline, it seems FotOR will be set quite a while after Knights of the Old Republic. The official Star Wars website says the new game takes place during a time of rebuilding at the very end of the Old Republic era.

According to Douglas Reilly at Lucasfilm Games, the goal is to introduce fresh stories, characters, and locations within the Star Wars universe. This means fans shouldn’t anticipate seeing characters like Revan or the Exile from the Knights of the Old Republic games reappear.

Is Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic canon?

Lucasfilm and Arcanaut Studios haven’t officially confirmed whether Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is considered part of the official Star Wars story.

However, we believe FotOR will likely be considered official Star Wars lore. Reilly stated on the official blog that it allows creators to explore the past without being limited by existing stories from other sources.

Setting stories in the past opens up endless possibilities for fresh, original Star Wars adventures while still capturing the essence of the galaxy fans adore. There are truly countless stories waiting to be told. We’ll always respect and celebrate the main saga, but it’s also vital that we venture into unexplored areas, introduce new characters, and discover new corners of the galaxy.

If this new game isn’t officially part of the established storyline, why would Reilly mention needing to consider familiar story elements from other games and media? It only seems relevant to reference those elements if everything takes place in the same universe. That’s how we see it, and it feels logical.

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Does Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic have turn-based combat?

Whether the upcoming Star Wars game, Fate of the Old Republic, will use turn-based combat is still unconfirmed.

Switching to a turn-based combat system would be similar to games like Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Plus, popular recent games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have made turn-based combat popular again.

We don’t think FotOR will use the turn-based fighting system seen in earlier games. The official descriptions hint at a faster, more action-focused style of gameplay.

As a Star Wars fan, I’m so excited about this new game! The Star Wars blog says it’s going to have incredibly intense battles. And Arcanaut, the studio making it, describes it as an action RPG where I get to play as a Force user traveling through a galaxy that’s just starting to recover. It sounds amazing!

Is the Ebon Hawk in Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic?

It’s currently unknown if the Ebon Hawk spaceship will appear in Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic.

While the ship shown in the game’s trailer looks a little like the Ebon Hawk, it’s not quite the same. The Ebon Hawk has a rounder rear, but the trailer ship is more sharply angled.

Also, the ship’s interior shown in the trailer doesn’t match how it looked in earlier games—we can see right through from the front to the back, which isn’t accurate. We’re a bit doubtful about this change!

Will any KotOR characters return in Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic?

It’s currently unknown if any characters from Knights of the Old Republic will appear in Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic.

Keep in mind that this game is set quite a while after previous events, and might even be considered a separate storyline. It’s important to remember that the original Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II are no longer considered official parts of the Star Wars story since Disney acquired the franchise.

Fans are sure to be excited about any mention of characters like Darth Revan, Darth Malak, Bastilla Shan, or Darth Traya. It’s likely the creators will include subtle references and nods to the series’ history, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them do so.

It would be simple to include the droids HK-47 and T3-M4, as they both featured prominently in the original Knights of the Old Republic games and could easily return. However, the trailer also showed what appeared to be a brand new companion droid.

Which platforms will Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic come to?

Official sources have confirmed that Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is currently being developed for PC and consoles, but is still in its early stages.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a PC – you won’t miss out! We’re planning to release the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and potentially future consoles as well. A version for the next Nintendo Switch is less certain, but we’re not ruling it out.

We’ll let you know as soon as we have more information. We’re very interested in how this develops and will be following it closely.

While you wait, you can watch the video below—or find it on our YouTube channel—where I explain why Knights of the Old Republic is the best game ever made.

Authors

Rob LeaneGaming Editor

Rob Leane leads gaming coverage at TopMob, managing news and features for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile, and VR games. He creates content for TopMob’s website, social media, and video platforms, and also puts together their weekly gaming newsletter. Before joining TopMob, Rob worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional, and Dennis Publishing.

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2025-12-12 18:07