The Star Wars KotOR full conversion mod Apeiron is being shut down. Lucasfilm issued a cease and desist to the developers of Apeiron earlier this week. Star Wars KotOR Apeiron was in development since mid-2015, and was being built in Unreal Engine 4.
The team of volunteer developers was headed by John Trotter, whose Poem Studios was behind the project. Lucasfilm’s cease and desist forced Trotter to end production of the mod. In a Twitter post Trotter wrote, “I’ve exhausted my options to keep it afloat; we knew this day was a possibility. I’m sorry and may the force be with you.”
Apeiron’s production was highly publicized over the years, with over 23,000 Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. The developers streamed and showcased clips of the conversion mod often, and had plans to reintroduce cut content to the game. Several short in-development clips of early parts of the game have been shown off as recently as last week. Star Wars KotOR Apeiron made use of the breadth of Unreal Engine 4, and was planning to upgrade all of the game’s visual assets. Poem Studios were also trying to make the game more user friendly by introducing a new inventory system among other changes.
Lucasfilm has had a penchant for shutting down fan projects, including free games like Apeiron. In 2016 EA and Lucasfilm shut down a fan-built version of Pandemic Games’ canned Battlefront 3. That game became the Star Wars-inspired Galaxy in Turmoil as it continued development at Frostwire.
Star Wars KotOR came out in 2003, and was developed by BioWare for the PC and Xbox. KotOR was acclaimed when it released, and sold over 3 million copies by 2008. The game takes place several thousand years before the Star Wars movie saga, and focuses on a band of characters trying to stop the evil Darth Malak from destroying the Republic. Characters like the assassin droid HK-47, and the Jolee Bindo have become fan favorites over the years. KotOR took players to new parts of the galaxy, and explored iconic Star Wars planets like Tatooine and Kashyyk.
