Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic announced its dev team, and it's full of Mass Effect and KotOR BioWare talent — now I'm even more excited for the RPG

Love and appreciation for Star Wars is in the air right now thanks to the Star Wars Day celebrations of May 4 (and "Revenge of the Fifth" on the day after). The revelry about memorable adventures in a galaxy far, far away may be drawing to a close soon...but the team behind one of the most promising upcoming Star Wars projects has made some exciting announcements before it does.

That project is Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic — a brand new single player RPG for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 that was announced during The Game Awards 2025, and that will be set in the Old Republic era of the Star Wars timeline. It's the first game to return to that era since the 2011 MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was preceded by 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) and 2004's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords.

Fate of the Old Republic has been described as a spiritual successor to KotOR, and the studio making it, Arcanaut Studios, is helmed by the ex-BioWare KotOR and Mass Effect director Casey Hudson. For the last several months, it's been unclear who else is working on the game; now, though, Arcanaut has revealed several of its executive developers on the studio's website.

These include Dan Fessenden as senior technical designer, Melanie Faulknor as director of external development, Pascal Blanché as art director, Caroline Livingstone as director of production and performance, and Ryan Hoyle as chief technology officer.

Notably, Fessenden, Livingstone, and Hoyle all worked on the original KotOR, with the three all also having contributed to the Mass Effect franchise. Faulknor and Livingstone also helped build BioWare's Dragon Age titles, and Livingstone was involved with BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment's Neverwinter Nights as well — experience that Hudson touched on in a LinkedIn post on Star Wars Day.

"Our team members working on Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic come from many different development backgrounds," he wrote. "Some were with me in 2003 on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and throughout the creation of the Mass Effect Trilogy. Others have cut their teeth on industry-changing games at the likes of Microsoft, BioWare, Epic Games, Ubisoft, EA, and more."

"We're united in purpose, with a desire to live and breathe Star Wars and return to this beloved galaxy for a new adventure," he added.

The presence of veteran KotOR and Mass Effect talent on the Fate of the Old Republic development team is incredibly exciting, and gives me confidence that the RPG is in good hands. I've been waiting for a true successor to the KotOR games for over two decades now, and if there's anyone I trust to make it, it's the people that made the series in the first place.

As for when Fate of the Old Republic is set to release, it's unknown right now, as the game doesn't have a release date or even a release window. With that said, Hudson previously confirmed that the game is coming before 2030, so it'll be in our hands before the dawn of the next decade.

Are you looking forward to getting your hands on Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic? Does the presence of KotOR and Mass Effect devs make you more excited about the project? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.

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