James Ohlen spent six months in 2015 developing a reboot of the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO called The New Republic. The reboot aimed to shift the game to resemble the single-player style of Knights of the Old Republic, with a setting a few hundred years before the fall of the Galactic Republic to allow narrative tie-ins [1, 2, 3].
Ohlen convinced key figures to back the plan, including LucasFilm presidents Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni, as well as EA executive Patrick Söderlund. Ohlen called gaining Söderlund's support “one of the greatest accomplishments of my career” [1, 2, 3].
Despite internal support, EA's board of directors rejected the reboot due to concerns about additional spending. The board was wary after the original SWTOR cost about $300 million to develop. Ohlen quoted the board saying, “Why the f*ck are we gonna spend a bunch more?” [1, 2, 3].
The original MMO, released in 2011, earned over $1 billion in lifetime revenue but disappointed many fans who wanted more of the single-player KOTOR experience offered in the planned reboot [1, 2].
The rejection of the reboot marked the start of Ohlen's increasing dissatisfaction with BioWare. After 22 years at the company, he left in 2018 following the rejection and personal burnout [1, 4, 5, 2, 3]. Ohlen described running on fumes and struggling with health issues during this period, saying, “I was running on fumes, and it was hurting my health, and my personal life, and everything. I just needed to step away.” [5]
In 2019, Ohlen co-founded Archetype Entertainment to build the sci-fi RPG Exodus, but he left Archetype in early 2025 citing burnout and health concerns [4, 5, 6, 3]. Ohlen said, “I definitely wouldn’t put myself in that situation again; that’s not a healthy place to be.” [6]
Since leaving Archetype, Ohlen has been focusing on smaller projects and tabletop RPG adventure books rather than large-scale games [5, 6, 3]. The Exodus RPG co-founded by Ohlen is expected to release in 2027 [4, 6, 3].
