EA has ended plans to reboot and revamp Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Even if you look from the outside in, it's easy to see that EA and BioWare aren't exactly meshing well together. BioWare developers continue to have a lot to offer, with Mark Darrah and David Gaider revealing the struggles they've had at BioWare's parent company.

Now, fellow BioWare veteran James Ohlen has added his voice to this, revealing that EA shot down its chance to reboot Star Wars: The Old Republic. In a conversation with PC Gamer, Ohlen explained how the reboot addressed a number of issues from launch and brought the MMO more in line with previously released KOTOR games.

BioWare veteran James Ohlen shares details about the canceled Star Wars: The Old Republic reboot.

In Star Wars The Old Republic, one of the Dark Council sits on the throne.

In the interview, Ohlen shares his regrets about The Old Republic. He said the game is more like “WoW in space” than a KOTOR game. This is something he wanted to fix with the massive reboot update he prepared for 2015.

“It was an opportunity to play Knights of the Old Republic online, [put right] “Everything I say is, we screwed up,” Ohlen said.

This idea has certainly attracted considerable attention. Ohlen passed on both EA executives and Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy. He even had a meeting with Dave Filoni about a possible partnership, which could have been the highlight of the disappointing relationship between EA and Lucasfilm.

But it all fell apart when EA feared the cost. “We all remembered the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and we were going to have Star Wars: The New Republic until the EA board came out and remembered spending $300 million,” he says. “They said, ‘Why are we spending more money?’”

Ohlen described this as “the beginning of the end” of his time at BioWare, leaving in 2018 after 22 years with the company. He was just one of many veterans leaving, with others being laid off following the release of Dragon Age: Veilguard.

For Star Wars: The Old Republic, which changed hands from BioWare to Broadsword Online Games in 2023. Currently, BioWare's only known project is the new Mass Effect.