Which "third party" halted Aspyr's planned DLC for its KOTOR II port?

17.11.2023 - 18:18 / gamedeveloper.com

Who exactly pulled the plug on the planned downloadable content for Aspyr's Nintendo Switch port of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords? That's a surprising new question that has risen to the surface thanks to a new filing by Aspyr in its motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit levied against the company over the DLC's cancellation.

As first reported by Axios, Aspyr's motion to dismiss the lawsuit is based on an argument that plaintiffs have already been provided relief over their complaint that they were "duped" by initial marketing for the game that promised to restore content cut from its original release. "All were offered a replacement product worth more than the one they purchased and none requested a refund," Aspyr's lawyers stated in a filing.

It's a pretty fair argument. But it was a comment by co-CEO Ted Saloch that gave a sense of drama to the whole affair. He stated that "Aspyr believed it would be able to release the content, but a third party objected and Aspyr was unable to do so."

"A third party?" Which third party? And why? What would be a humdrum business dispute in many other instances gains a whole new kind of relevance when you follow the journey of this mythical cut content—itself already a piece of obscure Star Wars mythology.

Let's run through the interested parties.

First, there is the Star Wars license holder itself: The Walt Disney Company. Disney purchased Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012 for $4 billion, making it responsible for all the licenses granted by Lucasfilm subsidiary LucasArts. It may have plenty of sway over what content Aspyr releases. Did Disney change its mind on making this unreleased content available to the public? (They still won't release a theatrical cut of the original Star Wars trilogy after all...)

Next, we should consider the original developer of the cut content: Obsidian Entertainment. Would any individual at Obsidian object to the cut storylines and areas being finally put on sale? Possibly—but so might by parent company Microsoft, which bought the studio in 2018, years after KOTOR II went out the door. If Obsidian and Microsoft never earned revenue on this content... why should Aspyr?

And finally we should briefly cast our gaze upon Nintendo itself—an unlikely but still relevant suspect in this case. Aspyr's KOTOR II port launched in a rough state, and a game-breaking crash prevented some players from progressing past a certain point in the game. Did the platform holder have any concerns over DLC filled with never-released content that could impact an already unstable product on its storefront?

I should stress that Nintendo is not the most likely candidate here but after Sony yanked CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 from its digital store