Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic Director Assures Players It Won’t Require 200 Hours to Complete and Avoids ‘Creatively Soulless’ GenAI

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic emerged as one of the standout surprises at the Game Awards 2026 showcase. Not only was the game’s announcement unexpected, but it was also a shock to learn that Casey Hudson, the former director of Mass Effect, would be at the helm. Hudson secured funding for this ambitious project from an unlikely benefactor: Simon Zhu, a veteran from the Chinese conglomerate NetEase, who had just withdrawn support from Hudson’s previous studio the year before.

A recent report highlights how Zhu has been actively rescuing projects that NetEase had previously abandoned, including Hudson’s former endeavor, Humanoid Origin, and David Vonderhaar’s BulletFarm. Zhu established a new holding company, GreaterThan Group, with private investments totaling up to $100 million, aiming to fill the gap left by what he describes as an overcorrection in the industry as funding shifts away from gaming towards tech and AI.

Hudson now leads Arcanaut Studios, which has committed to delivering Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic before 2030. However, Zhu intends to keep the team size manageable, emphasizing the importance of avoiding bloated staff numbers as production progresses. Hudson has made it clear that generative AI will not play a role in their development process.

“I just find AI to be creatively soulless,” Hudson stated. “It’s hard to imagine where it’s actually helpful in the process. I’m just really unimpressed with it.”

Fate of the Old Republic is also set to break the mold of sprawling, 100+ hour games like Pearl Abyss’ recent Crimson Desert. Hudson remarked, “Bigger isn’t necessarily better. If I’m excited about a game and then I find out that it’s 200 hours long — even if I have no ambition to actually finish it — I wonder, if I put 20 hours in, will I even be out of act one? A lot of players just want to play something and finish it.”

Vonderhaar echoed this sentiment, aiming to keep BulletFarm small and focused, in contrast to the previous trend of investment-driven studios that rapidly increased their workforce without a clear vision or realistic production timeline. “If you gave me $200 million, I wouldn’t spend it all,” he said. “Money doesn’t make it good. People make it good.”