Volition’s classic Saints Row 2 has been almost unplayable on PC for years after the game’s source code went missing and it turned into a bug-riddled mess. Good news today for anyone who still wants to play it, though: The code has been found, and Volition is working on getting a Steam version released.
The company announced the discovery in a livestream earlier today, saying that a two-person team is getting put to work rebuilding Saints Row 2 from scratch so that it’ll run on more modern systems/hardware configurations. This new version will run on Steam, not Gamespy (if you’d forgotten about Gamespy, it’s OK; this is a 2008 game ported to PC in 2009). It will also bring with it the game’s formerly console-exclusive DLC.
Ever since the game’s lack of updates basically killed it off, the only way to play Saints Row 2 (and its online modes) has been through the hard work of modders, who managed to get around Volition’s absence to varying degrees of success.
No word on a release date yet.
What happened to the source code?
Volition didn’t handle Saints Row 2's PC port directly, instead that job was done by a team from CD Projekt Red. When THQ went bust in 2012, Volition thought “the source code was lost in the bankruptcy auction”. Seven years later, though, it’s back.