14 DAY TRIAL // LucasArts has surprised many by announcing that it plans to release a slate of older games using the Steam digital distribution service from Valve. These should arrive on July 8 and are some of the most loved titles from the back catalogue of the publisher.
The games that LucasArts is set to bring to Steam are: Loom and Dig, two classic adventures; Republic Commando, Battlefront II and Starfighter, all Star Wars-based videogames without great commercial success; LEGO Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, for those who are interested in pixelated representations of Harrison Ford, Armed and Dangerous; Thrillville: Off the Rails, which simulates and amusement park. At the moment, it’s not known how much each of the games will cost or whether they will also be offered as a unified pack.
Darrell Rodriguez, who is the president of LucasArts, said that “This effort is going to make it possible to introduce a whole new generation of gamers to LucasArts’ classic games. It also gives more people a chance to play our games by making them available long after they’ve disappeared from store shelves. We hope our fans are as excited as we are about our plans and we can’t wait to share what’s coming next. This is just the beginning.”
LucasArts-made adventure games have been some of the most important titles of the 90's and when the publisher began taking them off its online store, prices on the second-hand market spiked, as gamers were afraid that they would disappear forever.
LucasArts will apparently not stop here, as the press release that the company has put out is saying that other announcements related to its back catalog are coming. Let's hope that more companies choose to make their old games, which are all but impossible to find on sale, available to interested players through digital distribution platforms like Steam or the dedicated Good Old Games.