Star Wars: KOTOR on Steam, Direct2Drive now - free for PAX panel attendees

by Christopher Grant on Sep 5th 2009 9:30PM

At this afternoon's Star Wars: The Old Republic panel at PAX, attendees were given a special treat: knowledge that LucasArts continues to expand its digital offerings, bringing the BioWare-developed classic (and precursor to SW:TOR) Knights of the Old Republic to both Steam and Direct2Drive for $10 ... starting today. KOTOR joins a digital lineup of LucasArts adventure game classics, as well as some more recent fare like Republic Commando. Still missing: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing and TIE Fighter Meet Frankenstein.

We suppose the free Steam download code they Oprah'd away ("You get a code! And you get a code!") could be considered a treat by some; however, we've already given ours away on Twitter (@joystiq) convincing ourselves that sharing the knowledge is a far greater treat. Right?

[Note to PAX attendees: There's a repeat of today's panel tomorrow morning at 11am; even money is on Lucas repeating this code-away there. That's from us to you. Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.]

Tags: Direct2Drive, KOTOR, LucasArts, PAX, PAX-2009, Steam

Reader Comments (44)

Free is good... wish I could of gotten it for free. I've still yet to get a chance to play this game.

I was going to say that this is one of the few games that's better to pay for, since at the time it was awesome and fresh.

But then I realized that it only spawned a so-so sequel with an ending basically promising a third game, which is now bunk, and now a dreaded MMO. So, perhaps it is better free since BioWare doesn't understand how to make an investment...

/jadedness

BioWare didn't make the second one. Buy the game based on its merits and not whether you like franchises or not... the first one is pretty good and probably worth the $10 it is on steam.

"BioWare doesn't understand how to make an investment..."

BioWare doesn't own the Star Wars franchise and therefore was not the decision maker. Could that not have been any more obvious?

It is very much worth your $10. One of my favorite gaming experiences ever.

KOTOR for 10!? i always wanted to play that but back then my PC sucked too much. buying now.

I played this on Xbox back in it's day. It is still my favorite bioware game.

I was browsing Steam for the first time in a very long time a couple hours ago and saw it, thought it had been up there forever. $10 isn't bad, and it's actually something my POS computer could run.

Does anyone know if this is an updated version that works well with windows vista/7? I tried playing my box copy a little while ago but it didnt play nice with vista or the 7 beta. Id definitely drop 10 bucks on an updated version.

Do you still have your box copy? Just use that, I'm pretty sure if you apply the updates it'll work fine.
If not, try running it in compatibility mode and/or "as administrator".

Good luck, it's a great game.

Yeah, windows 7 (if you are running the RC like I am) has a great compatibility mode system, far greater than the vista one.

Hopefully they fixed all the crashes this game has on PC.

So many misc video card issues with this game, including a 100% crash on Korriban :\

I don't think they tend to patch other people's games for release on Steam. Good Old Games do, but they're often dealing with much older and simpler game engines.

Well I mean Bioware, in preparation for releasing it on Steam.

If they don't attempt to fix it, you're gonna have lots of Po'd people when the game can't be completed :P

Oh, I was just looking for a copy for the pc and it was really expensive. Glad this came down in price.

Like the people above, I would dearly like to know if it's been updated at all to support current systems.

My box copy of KOTOR 1 and 2 will NOT run on any of the newer computers I have tried them on. It doesn't like current hardware and it doesn't like the new operating systems. And when I did dig out an old machine, the max resolution settings on the games is a fraction of current native LCD resolution and you can't run either in a windowed mode (making it look like absolute crap).

That said, $10 (or $7.50 or free) is a great deal on a GREAT game.

I tried the most recent patch for it which was from years ago as well as win7 compatibility mode but it would crash around 5 minutes in every time. Could also be because I'm using 64 bit.

64 bit should not be an issue. if the program does not run in native x64 it will run in x86. kinda sucks and uses more memory but still runs. notice your computer has Program Files and a Program Files (x64) folders.

i was unaware of any issues this games has. hopefully it runs ok on my rig. Splintercell Double Agent runs fine for me and it was supposed to have terrible bugs

Downloading now on my 64bit Vista. I'll update once its ready to launch.

Have this still on the original XBOX (which is back compat for the 360 btw), but I always wanted to try it on the PC for higher res. A game worth playing more than once.

Works good on 64-bit.

Resolution is higher for the game, though some menus and text are smaller because of the resolution.

Good to know. Thanks.

Free is always good. I have always wanted to try it anyways. Anyone know how to enter the code?

If you haven't played it yet, do yourself a favor and go buy it.

One of the greatest games I've ever played, and one of the few RPG's I genuinely care about.

Agreed. Still holds a place in my top 10 games of all time.

Fact.

Yes. At the time. But Mass Effect has surpassed it as the greatest game ever made.

Mass Effect is definitely a good game, but in terms of replayability and fun KotOR takes the cake.

I'm yet to play it. I'm ashamed to say i download it via torrent about 3 weeks ago and havent even unzipped it, tho now i will buy it. I'm hoping it'll not be like Oblivion, actually i'm really hoping it'll increase my interest in gaming in general. For some reason, i just can't be stuffed playing any games anymore, unless it's Left 4 Dead.

On a side note, i wanna see Jedi Knight and Jedi Academy on Steam, i'll buy them immediately.

When i say i don't want it to be like Oblivion, it's not a stab at Oblivion at all. Oblivion is just a good recent game i bought, one of a few, and none of them held my interest for any more than 2 hours. Its not the games, its just a lull in my general gaming interest at the moment.

It's not like Oblivion. Think Mass Effect with more sidequests and a bit more freedom of direction in the plot and you'll be close.

I've been thinking about hitting up Kotor for the last past week now. I have only beat it on the good side about 3 times now I have never ventured into the dark side, Thats how I'm with on all the games I got that lets me take a side. I'm always a good guy I reckon I might go head and take the path down the dark side.

Oh and my heart weeps for a release of Xwing, Tie Fighter, or Xwing Vs Tie Fighter. I had so many great times playing that on Zone. I miss my trusty Tie Advanced and Tie Interceptor.

May have to get this.

First one is a classic, i love it. Still got my original boxed copy so i won't be buying this.

Is there any news on KOTOR II? It's strange why they haven't made it available too, even if it is the lesser of the pair.

Probably because it sucked, mainly because Obsidian developed it, not Bioware.

Has this already been redeemed or can it be done continuously? I can't for the life of me figure out where to input any type of code when checking out from the Steam store...

One time use only.

Me too, I don't see anywhere to enter a code. I have gotten free games off steam offer before, but I don't see any special pages/offers for it. Anyone know where to enter the code?

UGH! YEA I KNOW! My heart skipped a beat and I could not believe it was real. So i quickly went on Steam and my heart Skipped a beat again when I saw it as the first item... then I read it slowly... Knights of the Old Republic.

Owned. SCREW YOU JOYSTIQ!

The MMO doesn't even have a "K" anywhere in the title.

Does it work? I have always had problems getting this game to run on a multicore machine, random crashes all the time, can't even get past the intromission on my quadcore pc. And Vista, yea, even worse, XP mode was a must to even boot it up propper.

Well, thinking about it, I doubt Bioware has touched this at all, and is just releasing it as such.

That said, crashing every 5 minutes is normal for the PC version. At least, that's what I get.

Try setting your resolution to 800x600, I had a bit of luck that way, but it's still pretty unstable.

just got it on steam. working great.
win7. sli. 2560x1600 (widescreen mod)
not a single crash yet.. played about 7 hours.

This does work on Vista and multi cores, it just takes a long time to load up and load in between movies. :) Awesome game even with the outdated combat and graphics and you can't beat that price for this kind of value.

Works okay on my netbook (Atom N270, GMA 950 with 128MB 945GM graphics). But it's sad that my four year old desktop can run Kotor on max settings and my netbook can only run it on minimum.

Pentium 4 is the best. That desktop can run anything.

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Star Wars: KOTOR on Steam, Direct2Drive now - free for PAX panel attendees

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Sep 5th 2009 9:34PM MarkHawk said

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