After years of decreasing support for its older titles, LucasArts today announced it will be releasing through Steam ten of its games across numerous genres, franchises, and developers.
Included amongst the planned digital releases for July 8 are original adventure games Loom and The Dig, as well as numerous Indiana Jones and Star Wars titles.
No pricing plans were included in the statement, and the Steam storefront does not yet list the games in its "Coming Soon" section.
The titles to be released are the original adventure games Loom and The Dig; the Star Wars games Battlefront II (Pandemic), Republic Commando, and Starfighter; LEGO Indiana Jones and adventure games Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; action game Armed and Dangerous (Planet Moon); and theme park sim Thrillville: Off the Rails (Frontier).
LucasArts recently licensed its Monkey Island property to Telltale Games to create a new episodic series, which begins tomorrow, and the company is also developing its own graphical remake of the original Secret of Monkey Island adventure game.
Those actions make today's announcement the latest in a series of projects from LucasArts demonstrating a desire to capitalize on its decades of past game development, which traditionally relied heavily on internally-created franchises but which in recent years has focused much more heavily on Star Wars- and Indiana Jones-related titles.
"This effort is going to make it possible to introduce a whole new generation of gamers to LucasArts’ classic games," said LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez. "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."
The company has progressively removed older games from its website and online store, leading to frequently high prices for its titles on the secondhand market -- particularly its adventure games.
This also represents LucasArts' first ever support of Valve's Steam digital distribution service; the company had until now been one of the few significant publishers not to sign on.
The press release claimed "future back-catalog announcements" are forthcoming.
I loved LOOM. I remember finishing it when it was first released and actively wanting to play more. Not "another game would be cool", but "I really want more of this". Pity it never happened.
I really hope sales will be good for the old point & clicks. Because, in such a case, Lucasarts might be encouraged to produce something new in this niche. Untill now, the company seems to be more of a license seller than a game company.
I own most of these games, but I'll pick up a copy of indy 3 and the dig to finish off my collection and support the initiative. Now to wait for my copy of the new Monkey Island.
