Uh, oops. Aspyr, the developer/porter behind the recent release of Knights of the Old Republic II on nintendo switch, has tweeted that it is aware that the game cannot be completed at this time.
Austin-based Aspyr has made a name for itself porting classic games to new systems, most recently bringing a number of Star Wars titles to the Switch. The most recent of these is the painfully named but absolutely wonderful Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II – The Sith Lordspublished a few weeks ago.
But after some pressing from a customer, the studio admitted it’s aware the game is currently so buggy that it can’t be completed on Nintendo’s handheld.
It was an impressive performance by Daniel Moore, who first asked if the company was “aware that there’s no way this game can end.” answered Aspyr with a rather ambiguous comment about “a known issue that will be fixed in the next patch” and then with a link to the support pages. But Moore kept pushing the studio, making it clear he was aware of the issue at the time repeat his question. Are you aware?
Aspyr then replied and admitted it. “Yes, we are aware,” it said, before adding, “our development team is working to get the patch deployed as soon as possible.”
It appears The game crashes after playing the “Basilisk Crash” cutscene, played when players arrive on Onderon. Which, very disturbingly, is about halfway through the game.
It raises some pretty important questions about the game’s QA that it could be certified and released in a form that’s impossible to finish. It also begs the question of how long Aspyr has been aware that its product has a game-changing bug that affects all players but has not disclosed it to potential and current customers. We contacted Aspyr to ask these questions.
Nintendo can be particularly difficult when it comes to releasing patches for games, adding to the delay in fixing the issue. But damn what a mistake, albeit an oddly fitting one given this game’s turbulent history from 2004. It’s definitely worth waiting for this wonderful Obsidian RPG until there’s better news.
