Things have not been all good for Aspyr Media lately. Not only did the studio seemingly get removed from working on the planned Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, but also lost some key personnel in the process. Around the same time, Aspyr made the choice to cancel the announced Restored Content DLC for their release of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 Remastered on Nintendo Switch. This made a lot of fans upset, especially those who had been waiting to play the DLC for a long time. This may have landed Aspyr in some hot water with one fan who decided to go a step further.
A man named Malachi Mickelonis has filed a class-action lawsuit against Aspyr Media over the canceled Restored Content DLC. The lawsuit alleges that Aspyr falsely advertised the Restored Content as part of Knights of the Old Republic 2 remastered, and failed to offer a refund or fulfill their original promise as advertised. The 22-page lawsuit goes into detail about what Malachi is suing for.
“Defendants [Aspyr] falsely represented that consumers who purchased KOTOR would receive for free never-before released “Restored Content DLC,” or new downloadable content providing new gaming content for users (e.g. bonus mission, new dialogue, revamped ending). Defendants did not provide the Restored Content DLC, but refuses to give consumers a refund for their purchase of KOTOR.”
The write-up of the lawsuit goes on to claim that Aspyr violated the California State Unfair Competition Law, Business, and Professions Code, as well as the False Advertising Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act. Lawyers for Malachi point to multiple instances of Aspyr advertising that the Restored Content DLC would be part of the game in trailers, as well as tweets that mentioned timeframes that consumers could expect to see the DLC released. They go on to mention that the company refused to give refunds to those who purchased the game and were upset about the announcement of the DLC’s cancelation. The lawsuit also includes multiple pages full of tweets from various people expressing their anger and reactions to the announcement from Aspyr.
“Plaintiff felt completely duped and was upset because he had relied on Defendants’ [Aspyr Media] representations that the Restored Content DLC would be released for KOTOR. In fact, Plaintiff did not even play KOTOR after purchasing it, instead choosing to wait until the Restored Content DLC was released. But Defendants never did. Plaintiff would potentially be interested in purchasing other games with Restored Content DLC from Defendants’ in the future if they have the advertised content, are not deceptively advertised, and accordingly priced at fair market value without being artificially inflated due to the deceptive advertising.”
It should be noted that Aspyr Media had offered a free game from a selection of titles they had released across multiple platforms the day they canceled the Restored Content DLC. This happened in June 2022 and came shortly after Aspyr was facing trouble with the KOTOR Remake. This was the bigger game that the studio was working on simultaneously to the KOTOR 2 remastered content.
Around a year later after news broke out about the project being in turmoil, Aspyr’s parent group Embracer laid off a number of workers across multiple studios. Specific reasons for why Aspyr decided to cancel the Restored Content DLC have not been known, or detailed by the studio themselves. Some speculation was circulated by various outlets, but nothing official came out besides the announcement.
For some on the outside, the lawsuit doesn’t seem to have strong legs to stand on. Many things within game development change all the time, with some big changes happening at the final hour or post-release. Because this is a class-action lawsuit, anyone who shares similar views and who purchased the game can also join the lawsuit. It will be tough to prove in court that Aspyr knowingly deceived customers with their failed plans to release the Restored Content DLC.
What are your thoughts about the class-action lawsuit being brought to Aspyr Media? Do you think there’s a case here? Should Aspyr have released the content for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2? Share you views on everything down below in the comment section!
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