It appears from an Electronic Arts analyst report that their new subsidiary studio BioWare are working on the long-rumoured Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III.

BioWare shot to fame with Forgotten Realms titles Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, before becoming a vital part of the Xbox brand with hits like KotOR, Jade Empire and most recently Mass Effect. KotOR III is apparently due in the 2008/2009 financial year, which means [if true] we can expect it before April ‘09. Platforms are, as yet, unknown, although a multi-platform release is probably a safe bet. Whether it will beat the long-coming PC title Dragon Age to the shelf is anyone’s guess (probably).

She’s not wearing any armour to make the game harder, that’s all…

Due to EA’s recent takeover of Pandemic BioWare, this does however raise an interesting question. Traditionally, Activision (who have themselves recently become Activision Blizzard after merging with Vivendi) have published Lucasarts games outside of the US, but with Activision and EA being the sternest of foes, who will be on publishing duty here?

In the same report, it was revealed that Pandemic are working on a new Lord of the Rings game. Nothing else is known about the title as yet, although given Pandemic’s history with titles like Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans! and Star Wars Battlefront it seems likely it could be an action-heavy, open-world take on the franchise. Whether it will be interesting-looking but apparently-canned title The White Council seems unlikely.

We’ll let you know more as we do.