Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic Devs Come With Mass Effect and KOTOR Baggage

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Star Wars Day in 2026 didn’t have a lot of big announcements like in past years. Most of the news focused on the season finale of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord and the upcoming movie featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu.

We didn’t learn much new about Star Wars: Eclipse or the Knights of the Old Republic remake, but we did get some exciting updates about another upcoming Star Wars game set in the Old Republic timeline.

About five months after it was first shown at the 2025 Game Awards, Arcanaut Studios, the developer behind the new Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic game, has shared details about the creative team. This is the first new game in the Old Republic series in 15 years.

Arcanaut Studios’ Team of KOTOR and Mass Effect Veterans

I was so excited when Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was announced last year! It wasn’t just that it was going back to the Old Republic era – which is awesome since Disney took over – but the fact that Casey Hudson, who directed both the original KOTOR and the Mass Effect trilogy, was involved really got me hyped!

Hudson leads both Arcanaut as CEO and the development of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic as Game Director. Given his track record, this new game is expected to be a fantastic science fiction RPG.


arcanautstudios.com

Hudson isn’t the only veteran from the teams behind KOTOR and Mass Effect working on FOTOR. Arcanaut Studios announced on Star Wars Day that Dan Fessenden, Melanie Faulknor, Caroline Livingstone, Ryan Hoyle, and Pascal Blanche—all experienced creatives—will be leading the project.

A lot of the developers on this project are experienced professionals from BioWare. However, only three of them previously worked on KOTOR: Fessenden, Hoyle, and Livingstone. Fessenden was the Senior Technical Designer on KOTOR, Hoyle served as Chief Technology Officer, and Livingstone was the Director of Production and Performance.


arcanautstudios.com

So, get this – all three of these developers were part of the Mass Effect games, which I absolutely loved! And even cooler, they worked with Faulknor on Mass Effect 3. Now, Faulknor’s going to be leading external development for FOTOR, which is pretty exciting news if you ask me.

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Blanche hasn’t contributed to the KOTOR or Mass Effect games. However, he’s been Art Director on several other titles, including Myst IV: Revelation, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, RuneScape, Far Cry New Dawn, and Meet Your Maker. Currently, he’s the Art Director for FOTOR.

Casey Hudson leads Arcanaut as CEO and also directs the game development for Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic.

Although still under development, FOTOR has a strong team of gaming professionals working on it, and it has the potential to be the best Star Wars RPG since Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

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2026-05-05 18:39