Court documents from Aspyr’s settled lawsuit reveal the studio was advised that its cancelled KOTOR II Restored Content DLC for Switch had “no economic value,” underscoring the legal and commercial risks of turning free fan-made mods into official releases.
Aspyr Media was reportedly told its cancelled Restored Content Mod (RCM) for its Nintendo Switch port of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords had “no economic value”.
According to Game File, newly revealed court documents from the false advertising lawsuit surrounding the cancelled DLC offer fresh insight into how Aspyr defended its decision to scrap the project.
The case – which was settled earlier this year – stemmed from promotional material that suggested the popular fan-made RCM would be released as official post-launch DLC for the Switch version of KOTOR II.
As part of its legal strategy, Aspyr submitted expert testimony from former Blizzard product manager Frank Gilson.
According to filings reviewed by Game File, Gilson argued that the RCM had ”no economic value” because it was created by volunteers and distributed for free within the modding community.
Since players were never charged for the content, the expert claimed its absence could not represent a measurable financial loss to consumers.
Aspyr also sought to minimise the significance of the original DLC tease.
The studio argued that the reference appeared at the end of a YouTube trailer and was therefore unlikely to have been widely seen, with lawyers noting that many viewers skip videos after the opening seconds.
The documents further reveal the scale of the legal and licensing challenges Aspyr faced.
Internal emails and depositions show the company spent more than a year attempting to secure Disney and Lucasfilm approval, particularly around the correct attribution of the mod’s unpaid creators.
Certain contact details were redacted in court filings, with Aspyr claiming that revealing the identities of key Lucasfilm contacts would expose trade secrets built over decades.
By mid-2023, the DLC was officially cancelled, triggering the lawsuit.
Star Wars: KOTOR II’s cancelled Switch DLC had ‘no economic value’, expert reportedly told Aspyr
