Borked KOTOR 2 Switch Release Ends As It Began: A Shit Show
from the promises-promises dept
Almost exactly a year ago, we discussed the train wreck release of Knights of the Old Republic 2 as a port for the Nintendo Switch. How big a screw up was this whole thing from the start? Well, if you’re not familiar with our previous post on it, we can just start with there being a bug that makes the game literally unfinishable and take it from there. Aspyr, the company that did the port, apparently didn’t do the sort of QC to uncover this itself, and instead only learned of the issue when many customers who bought the game got very angry on social media some two weeks after the game was released for purchase.
So, that’s how it started. How’s it going? Well, Aspyr’s patch to fix the issue making the game non-completable managed to introduce further bugs and issues with the game. And in recent days, Aspyr announced that the Restoration Content DLC, a fan-led effort that added in cut content from the original game and was promised to those who bought the Switch version of the game for free, is simply not going to be provided at all to those paying customers.
The studio behind the port, Aspyr, delivered the bad news late Friday night, telling Switch owners of the game that the update to add support for a series of fan-made mods that fix certain bugs and round out KOTOR 2’s characters and rough ending had unfortunately been canceled. It’s basically the unofficial “final cut” of Obsidian Entertainment’s excellent RPG, and Switch players will now essentially miss out on it, despite the fact it was previously marketed alongside the port’s 2022 release.
“Sadly, today we are announcing that the Restoration Content DLC for the Nintendo Switch version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords will not be moving forward for release,” the studio tweeted on June 2. “We’d like to thank everyone for their continued support by providing a complimentary video game key to players that purchased Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords on Nintendo Switch before this announcement.”
Those free games on offer are a bunch of other Star Wars games, mostly for the Switch, or the full KOTOR 2 game on the PC, which does include the DLC being denied to Switch customers. However, as Kotaku points out, there are a couple of potential problems here. For starters, maybe a Switch owner doesn’t have a PC to run the game, or simply doesn’t want to play it on a non-handheld console. And those same folks, or others, may already own the other games on offer that could be played on the Switch. These are Star Wars fans we’re talking about. They tend to buy much/all the things when it comes to this stuff. So those customers are what, just shit out of luck?
This all dovetails with rumors of real problems at Aspyr that has some wondering just how long that organization will be around. But if you’re Nintendo, famous for its heavy-handed policing of everything that reaches its customers, this entire port has been an abject failure. It sure would be nice of Nintendo to step in and make sure effected customers on its console were made whole after all these failed releases and broken promises.
Filed Under: dlc, knights of the old republic, nintendo switch
Companies: aspyr, nintendo
Comments on “Borked KOTOR 2 Switch Release Ends As It Began: A Shit Show”
Honestly, a KotOR 2 release being a disastrously buggy mess is simply being faithful to the original.
Aspyr is owned by Saber, which is owned by Embracer, which is a publicly traded company. How does Nintendo bear responsibility for an entirely unrelated company’s series of screw ups?
Re: How does Nintendo bear responsibility
The switch provides a highly curated, expensive user experience and their brand relies on people paying for that.
They aren’t responsible for this game but their brand could still take damage from it and that’s why they might want to smooth things over.
Re:
The criticism is that Nintendo is a notoriously hand-on company with games released on that platform, and the usual defence for that is that is that it’s for quality control. So, what’s the excuse here?
Same thing when there’s malware or bad apps on iOS – the tradeoff for the walled garden approach is meant to be protection from such things.
Re: Re:
Blah blah section 230 blah blah
Re: Re: Re:
I’m curious – what the hell does that have to do with this in your mind?
Re: Re: Re:2
John Smith got really, really lazy, it seems.
Re: Re: Re:2
Platform owners bearing responsibility for third party material
Re:
Because Timmy never misses a chance to make an unrelated problem about Nintendo somehow.
Pretty blunt way of telling your Switch customers “Get a Steam Deck, Ayaneo 2, or ROG Ally”.
Heavily marketing a game based on a feature you decide later you won’t be including though, I can see that leading to some consumer protection agencies getting involved in parts of the world.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re:
Switch: $350
SteamDeck: $650
ROG Ally: $700
AyaNeo2: $1100
Nerds absolutely losing their shit when they don’t get something they feel entitled to: Priceless
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Wow…this comment section…ads show just fine, but dare disagree with the hive, and the comment gets marked
Anyway, a wise person would buy this game as a collectors item. It’s a historic example of how not to do a port. Class action litigation might fix this whole KOTOR 2 mess.
Re:
Nobody has any quibbles with people disagreeing, but if someone’s whole argument consists of talking-points that are divorced from reality and they refuse to acknowledge that perhaps they are wrong in spite of supplied facts, then they aren’t here really here to debate.
If you think what I say is bullshit then you are entirely free to give examples of comments that doesn’t fit what I say. You should know though, that the obvious trolls and assholes get flagged on sight due to their previous behavior.
Re:
“ads show just fine, but dare disagree with the hive, and the comment gets marked”
The spam is flagged as well as I’m seeing the thread., though I don’t see a disagreement in this thread. Did you get flagged in other threads? If so, maybe think about what you said – it’s rarely “disagreement” that get people reaching for the flag button.
“a wise person would buy this game as a collectors item”
Which is yet another reason to be concerned about games going digital-only and thus not have the first sale doctrine rights associated with physical items. A person who was ripped off by this at least has the ability to recoup some of what they wasted if they have the physical media. Although, even that’s a big gamble – other notorious flops like Aliens: Colonial Marines aren’t fetching big bucks right now, years later.
Re: Re:
I’m for physical copies (correction: ownership of physical copies) myself, but honestly, right now is actually the best time to be a gamer as far as “ownership” is concerned because we have: OPTIONS
-buy physical
-rent physical
-trade physical
-buy digital
-rent digital (lookin’ you Gamepass…)
Unfortunately, even though it’s generally cheaper, digital can be locked away. I hate that. I waited too late to get the Matrix/UE5 demo on XSX, now it’s gone forever (short of a hack, or getting it on PC, but Muh Videa Card Sux).
I also predict the eventual end of console exclusives. Timed exclusives are fine – heck, timed exclusives might even facilitate more optimization time for the other platforms/consoles. But absolute 1 (one) platform only exclusives can go away.
Give me buying/renting (especially physical copies) options, high quality optimized ports, and modding ability (thank you Tears of the Kingdom – pre update version)!
Re: Re: Re:
“Unfortunately, even though it’s generally cheaper, digital can be locked away.”
You’re definitely shopping in different places to me lol. There can be major discounts but it’s very rare for a digital game to be cheaper than a physical copy in my experience, especially if you go to charity shops/thrift stores rather than CEX / Gamestop. Then, of course, the advantage is you can lend the copy to family/friends even if you don’t want to sell it, which I suspect is one of the reason digital is so sought after.
This hasn’t been true for a long, long time. Right now, the Switch eShop has roughly the same problem of Steam in that low-effort garbage gets pumped onto there and Nintendo doesn’t care. Back with the Wii and the DS, there was shovelware galore released all over the place. Please pay more attention to the games industry at large, Timothy.
Re:
In fairness, so do Epic, GoG, PlayStation, and Xbox. Quality control was only a priority when companies were still traumatised by the crash of ’83
Re:
Tim? Pay attention to context? Vile heresy! Begone, unclean one!