Sony claims it delisted the KoTOR remake trailer ‘due to music license expiring’

Sony has attempted to clarify its recent removal of social media posts related to the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake.

This week, fans noticed that the tweet from the primary PlayStation Twitter account announcing the game in 2021 had been deleted, while the title’s reveal trailer had also been made private.

This, combined with press reports of the title’s allegedly troubled development, led to speculation that the game could be the latest casualty of restructuring efforts at Aspyr’s parent company, Embracer Group.

Now, Sony has issued a statement in response to the removal of social media posts related to Knights of the Old Republic remake, claiming that it was due to music licenses expiring.

“As part of normal business, we delist assets with licensed music when the licenses expire,” a Sony spokesperson said.

As noted by journalist Stephen Totilo, it’s not clear why music for an upcoming video game would expire. Especially because the music featured in the trailer was from the Star Wars movies, and not licensed externally.

A search of PlayStation’s YouTube account shows that many Star Wars game trailers, at least as far back as ten years ago, are still publicly listed.

Billed as a collaboration between developer Aspyr Media and production partners Lucasfilm Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game was announced as a timed PS5 console exclusive during a PlayStation Showcase event in September 2021.

The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake has reportedly been beset by problems over the last couple of years. Bloomberg claimed last summer that Aspyr had stopped working on the game and that the future of the title was up in the air.

Embracer had earlier confirmed that Saber Interactive was also working on the game, and some of Bloomberg’s sources said they believed it was possible Saber had taken over the development of the project entirely.