Update - March 29: In a statement, a representative for Square Enix confirmed that Legacy of Kain will return to Steam "soon," but didn't comment on the "important updates" being made on the back end. Here's the full comment:
"Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver will be made available for purchase on Steam again soon. We’re sorry for the inconvenience."
Original story:
The PC port of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was abruptly pulled from Steam this morning to allow for "some important updates."
"Square Enix has temporarily removed this title from sale to work on some important updates," a notice on the game's store page reads. "Please check back soon!"
Square Enix and developer Crystal Dynamics haven't explained the game's removal on their channels, and there's no additional context beyond the short notice above. There's some speculation that the PC port, which has long required fan-made fixes to run properly on most (if not all) systems, is finally getting a much-needed tune-up, but there's no telling what's going on under the hood. We've reached out to Square Enix for clarification and will update our reporting if we hear back.
Beyond tweaking action games released in 1999, Square Enix has been quite busy lately. Last week, the publisher unveiled Life is Strange: True Colors, put the name Forspoken to its mystery new-gen game Project Athia, and confirmed that Black Panther is coming to Marvel's Avengers as part of its big Square Enix Presents showcase. Here's a tidy round-up of everything announced at the show.
As it happens, the publisher's PC support has also been in the public eye lately thanks to Nier: Automata, which was recently added to the console and PC versions of Xbox Game Pass. However, the PC Game Pass build of the game isn't the same one available on Steam, nor does it have the same performance problems that – like the Soul Reaver port – have long required fan-made workarounds. This sparked a review bomb of the Steam version, with many players demanding the same level of performance offered by the Game Pass build.
New rumors suggest half-a-dozen other Square Enix games will soon come to Game Pass. What's the over-under on Soul Reaver making the list?
