According to IGN, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic director Casey Hudson has directly addressed rumors that the game won’t launch until 2030, insisting it will be out before then. The rumors stemmed from a social media comment by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who called a 2030 release an “optimistic guess” given that Hudson’s studio, Arcanaut, was only founded in July 2025. Hudson responded on Twitter, stating, “Don’t worry about the ‘not till 2030’ rumors,” and adding, “Game will be out before then. I’m not getting any younger!” The game, a narrative-driven single-player action RPG set in the Old Republic era, was announced at The Game Awards 2025 with a CG trailer and is being developed in collaboration with LucasFilm Games. This means the title is now targeting a release, at the absolute latest, sometime in 2029.
The optimistic timeline problem
Here’s the thing: Hudson’s comment is reassuring, but it doesn’t exactly shrink the timeline. A launch “before 2030″ still means we could be looking at 2028 or 2029. That’s four years out, minimum. And that’s a *long* time in game development, especially for a brand-new studio. Arcanaut isn’t just building a game; it’s building an entire company, hiring a team, and establishing a culture from scratch. That’s a monumental task before a single line of serious code is written for a AAA-scale RPG. So while Hudson is pushing back on the 2030 date, the underlying point from Schreier—that this is a massively ambitious project starting from zero—still stands.
The KOTOR shadow
The excitement here is entirely about legacy. This is the spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic, a game that Hudson himself directed. Fan expectations aren’t just high; they’re stratospheric. They want that same magic, that same depth of choice and character, but with modern action-RPG sensibilities. The pressure is immense. And announcing it this early, with just a flashy CG trailer, feels like a move to attract top-tier talent and maybe secure funding or a publishing deal. It’s saying, “Hey, we’re doing this big thing, come join us.” But it also means the hype train has left the station years before the game will even be playable. That’s a risky ride.
Console generation uncertainty
This leads to the other big question: what will we even be playing this on? A 2028 or 2029 release window puts it right on the cusp of the next console generation. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S will be eight or nine years old by then. It’s entirely plausible, maybe even likely, that Fate of the Old Republic skips this generation entirely and launches as a flagship title for the PlayStation 6 and next Xbox. Think about it. Would you want your dream project, the one you’re staking your new studio on, to be limited by hardware that’s nearly a decade old? Probably not. So don’t be surprised if this becomes a next-gen showcase.
A director’s personal stake
The most human part of Hudson’s statement is that last bit: “I’m not getting any younger!” It’s not just corporate messaging. This is personal for him. KOTOR is his legacy, and this is his shot at defining a new chapter of it on his own terms, outside of BioWare. That passion is genuine and probably the best reason for cautious optimism. But passion doesn’t code games or manage sprawling projects. The road from a StarWars.com blog post saying they’re “early in development” to a finished product is brutally long. We’ll be watching Arcanaut’s hiring announcements and maybe a studio acquisition or two long before we see any real gameplay. For now, fans will just have to trust the Force—and Casey’s timeline.
