Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic Developer Lineup, GTG Funding, AI Policy, and 2030 RPG Direction

With the latest developments regarding Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, the project looks less like an enigmatic undertaking and more like a legitimate game with a clear vision. With all that the company has revealed in their update and what Bloomberg has reported, you have a better understanding of who is behind this project, who finances it, and the actual RPG that Casey Hudson is trying to create.

One of the latest updates came from Arcanaut Studios, which revealed several people involved in the game's development. In addition, there are Dan Fessenden, Melanie Faulknor, Pascal Blanché, Caroline Livingstone, Ryan Hoyle, and even Casey Hudson.

Once you check out the team's portfolio, the correlation with old BioWare video games will be clear.

For example, Dan Fessenden has been working on games such as KOTOR, Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Another great engineer with an amazing background who should join your team is Ryan Hoyle, since he has helped create multiple games for BioWare, including Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, and others.

Casey Hudson is a talented developer who not only worked on KOTOR and Mass Effect but also served as BioWare's general manager until his departure in 2020. Moreover, you should consider hiring Caroline Livingstone. Her role as the director of multiple BioWare games makes her another potential candidate you can invite.

Some of the games she directed include Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, and Inquisition. Since these games have been praised for their unique characters and performances, you cannot afford to pass up a chance to bring her aboard.

The second studio head is Pascal Blanché. He has developed games such as Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and Far Cry: New Dawn for Ubisoft. While some of the other game titles associated with him may not be familiar to many players, the Fate of the Old Republic trailer already indicates that the artistic style will be impressive.

Other studio heads are Chris Bain and Cordy Reirson. Bain was responsible for business development operations at the company earlier in its history, especially during the Dragon Age 2 project.

Reirson worked as a producer at various studios and contributed to the creation of games such as Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. What makes her contribution intriguing is that she received producer credits on a video game adaptation of Revenge of the Sith in 2005, and it remains a fan favorite to date.

On the other hand, one significant position still stands out for its nonexistence: Lead Writer.

Looking at the latest positions listed by the company, we see openings for artists, programmers, cinematics, designers, and game developers, but not for writers. This becomes a problem when one considers the role of storytelling in most RPGs, which typically sets them apart from the rest.

Currently, the only person known to have had any writing experience on the project is Ben Gelinas, a former employee of Casey Hudson’s old studio, Humanoid Origin. He has extensive experience working on contracts with Remedy and BioWare, having helped create titles such as Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, SWTOR’s Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

It doesn’t necessarily imply weaknesses in the writing. It’s just that the studio hasn’t shared the main characters of its story yet. However, considering Gelinas' history with Gotham Knights, which was criticized for its poor writing, it is one of those instances where a bit of wariness isn’t too out of place.

The other major development comes from Bloomberg’s reporting on how the game is being funded.

According to the article, Simon Zhu, the former NetEase executive, plans to launch a new holding company, Greater Than Group (GTG), focused on investing in and managing studios globally. Fate of the Old Republic is one of the projects under this initiative.

According to GTG, they have $40 million in cash flow, and an additional $60 million has been contributed by people who have expressed interest in financing the project. From the above financial analysis, it can be seen that this project has attracted a number of wealthy individuals from the gaming and technology industries interested in serving as angel investors for the business.

In this regard, Zhu has pointed out that after NetEase pulled back on funding risky projects in 2024, he ended up meeting with developers and studio owners he had once funded. Clearly, Zhu has decided to back founder-led projects with creative personalities rather than huge studio efforts.

This strategy certainly resembles the kind of project Casey Hudson envisioned when discussing the Fate of the Old Republic. Clearly, Hudson wanted the video game not to become another RPG that offers hours upon hours of content purely because it is massive. "Bigger doesn't mean anything," according to Hudson. "It isn't about making an epic hundred-hour video game that overwhelms you before you get to the main story."

Clearly, the idea behind such an effort will remind one of BioWare's style. One can expect a game that lasts around 20 to 35 hours of gameplay. Such an effort will require replayability rather than size. Instead of offering more and more side missions, there will likely be more branching storylines to allow for multiple playthroughs.

This could easily be considered the most uplifting aspect of the whole update. Many modern triple-A RPG titles have traded pacing for scalability. Games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and even Veilguard have experienced issues where they felt unnecessarily bloated and sprawling at times. It's clear Hudson understands this problem and wants to ensure it doesn't become an issue here.

The other big topic covered in the update was AI.

Casey Hudson did not shy away from admitting how he found AI to be “creatively soulless” and admitted to not being very impressed with the usefulness of AI in the game development process. In an industry in which studios continue to experiment with artificial intelligence, this is bound to hit a chord with many players for whom handmade storytelling and performances matter.

It doesn't appear that the studio wants to expand to become a massive studio with hundreds of employees. Rather, it appears to be seeking to remain a relatively small studio, even though it will have some contractors helping with co-development.

This appears to be what one would expect from other companies in the same industry, since many developers have been shifting away from the AAA sector. They have been leaving large organizations behind to set up independent game studios.

Still, there are reasons to stay cautious.

According to Hudson, the game is expected to be released before 2030, and he hasn’t put in four years’ worth of work on any other single project. Certainly, this statement does seem very odd, given how Hudson has developed his previous games, including Anthem and Dragon Age: Veilguard.

It is worth mentioning another aspect – the problem with “legacy talent.” In recent years, many former AAA developers have come together under the name of a company and claimed they would bring back the old magic. However, their products are usually disappointing. It was no different with BioWare, which relied heavily on its veterans when developing Veilguard.

It does not imply that the fate of Fate of the Old Republic is sealed. On the contrary, this project looks much more coherent than many other contemporary AAA titles. However, reviving the spirit of the old BioWare remains a truly daunting task.

The game, in its current form, already has everything RPG fans have been wanting in their games for the last decade: proper branding, vision, funding, and a game-design philosophy. The question now remains to be answered – whether it will come into existence or not by 2030.