alt.hn

12/29/2025 at 7:16:32 PM

All Delisted Steam Games

 https://delistedgames.com/all-delisted-steam-games/

by Bondi_Blue

12/29/2025 at 8:53:30 PM

About one of my favorite racing games of all time: "The game could have been removed for a number of reasons, including the closure of developer Bizarre Creations in early 2011, but the most likely cause was expired licensing of the real-world cars featured in the game."[1]

To me this is one of the most egregious examples of how licensing massively hurts consumers. The game is fully playable offline (and online with a patch) but cannot legally be sold because of an arbitrary restriction limiting the use of likeness of virtual cars in the game.

[1] https://delistedgames.com/blur/

by 0xC0ncord

12/29/2025 at 10:57:47 PM

The title track of the game, Smile by Crystal Method [0] is one of my all time favorites as a result of playing Blur.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EbkSMPbj_I

by captn3m0

12/30/2025 at 8:39:18 AM

woah, sick track!

by big_man_ting

12/29/2025 at 10:11:53 PM

+1 for Blur, great game, it's like Super Mario Kart for grown-ups.

Too bad the only way to get it is by pirating it. But in these situations, doesn't piracy become morally acceptable?

by reddalo

12/29/2025 at 11:08:38 PM

It becomes a moral imperative to pirate it and continue seeding it for others to also acquire, as a mean to help preserving something you cared about, apparently more than the owners of the IP/rights themselves care.

by embedding-shape

12/30/2025 at 2:47:43 PM

> It becomes a moral imperative to pirate it and continue seeding it for others to also acquire, as a mean to help preserving something you cared about, apparently more than the owners of the IP/rights themselves care.

Your words brought me right back to my teenage years sitting at the family computer at 12am babysitting a couple of song downloads to burn onto a CD for my friends to listen to on the bus ride.

Kinda random and only tangentially related but the thought brought a smile to my face and I just felt like sharing and saying thanks!

by rigrassm

12/30/2025 at 4:00:43 PM

Heh, I too remember the stress and rush of burning car-listening CDs right before long car trips, trying to set the write speed to slower and slower after each failed attempt, and finally succeeding burning it, only to find out that the car didn't actually have any CD reader at all, and could only do cassette. Waiting for DC++, Kazaa or LimeWire to finish a download only to find out that of course, it's some Britney song instead.

Simpler times for sure, unsure if it was actually better or not though, we certainly aren't as young as we used to be :)

by embedding-shape

12/30/2025 at 1:16:06 AM

Wow this looks pretty rad, I wish I knew about it before! Having real cars in the game really makes it more fun to me. I dunno why, but playing racing games with a bunch of fake cars isn't as exciting (Super Mario Kart being an exception). It's especially fun when you see one of your cars, or a friend's car in the game.

by olyjohn

12/30/2025 at 7:40:49 AM

Yes, I think it's super funny to race with a Ford Transit in Blur!

by reddalo

12/30/2025 at 11:09:28 AM

It's one of the best arcade racing games ever made

by literalAardvark

12/30/2025 at 1:42:06 AM

This is the double edged sword of copyright, sometimes you want the artist to have control, sometimes you don't.

by wilg

12/30/2025 at 1:58:16 AM

People generally always want the artist to have control.

What people don't want, as in this case, is for a corporation to have control of the artist's work, and exercise that control mercilessly, thus actually reducing the reach and impact of the artist's work.

(Often, unknowingly to the corporation's own detriment. Having your cars appear in a game is literally free marketing, why refuse that?)

by wavemode

12/30/2025 at 3:37:07 AM

The engineers at the car company that designed the body in the first place are also artists.

by TylerE

12/30/2025 at 4:27:55 AM

They have as much control over this as I do, i.e. none at all.

by wat10000

12/30/2025 at 7:03:06 AM

Probably copyright needs to be amended to belong to an individual or a team that comprises not more of 5 people. No corpos can hold copyright or if they do, they must upfront declare the individual/team that holds it.

by lenkite

12/30/2025 at 10:01:08 PM

The artist is allowed to be a group of people, or sell their art to another person or group of people, who then get the same control.

by wilg

12/31/2025 at 12:09:33 AM

The problem is not a matter of artist control. Rather, it's a problem with how license agreements are handled--license agreements for product-breaking things with timeframes should generally not be permitted. It's a version of planned obsolescence.

by LorenPechtel

12/30/2025 at 2:29:25 AM

Blur is my favorite racing game of all time. I keep a sealed copy of the 360 version in my home as a little homage to the fun I've had with it.

by godzillabrennus

12/30/2025 at 5:11:17 AM

The same is currently happening with Forza games (at least Horizon ones, not sure about original Motorsport series). You can only buy the latest game, others have been delisted. You can still get physical copies, but the DLCs have been delisted as well, so you can't get the full version, at least not officially. And more than that, the online servers have been shut down as well.

It baffles me that this is still an issue, publishers are not concerned with implementing some sort of "kill switch" for expired content to keep getting money for the games. GTA also suffered from this.

by skotobaza

12/30/2025 at 5:31:37 AM

You may appreciate the game Split/Second, its in a similar vein.

by CasperH2O

12/29/2025 at 9:40:45 PM

oh yeah, I'm a fan of this game too. To my surprise, even though it's delisted I can still install it. That's certainly better than the alternative.

by dom96

12/29/2025 at 10:10:09 PM

I think you can install games that you bought (when they were available), even if they're delisted.

by reddalo

12/29/2025 at 11:31:47 PM

yeah, that's the whole point, thye still let you install the games you bought because not doing so would open a huge can of worms and re-start the whole "are you really buying games on steam or just renting them?" discussion, which they are very keen on avoiding

by dark-star

12/29/2025 at 8:23:17 PM

It's funny that 3 different Space Hulk games are here.

I actually thought Space Hulk (2013) was amazing but it's hard for a developer to keep up the yearly license payments on any Warhammer franchise. So it's not available for purchase anymore. It got ~75% on reviews on release but i like the board game and it was true to the board game so i personally loved it. Link on the steam store (the site should have these) https://store.steampowered.com/app/242570/Space_Hulk/

Fwiw if you have one of these games they are still in your Steam library. I still get to play the above game. I just can't easily play with others anymore nor can i suggest they purchase that game. I'm a little surprised it still runs fine given no updates but yay for backwards compatibility.

In general a theme for lists like these are licensing. If a developer has to pay a franchise licensing fee it's going to stop being worthwhile at some point. Take note if you're a developer. It's hard to get visibility without being tied to a franchise (Eg. Larian had to do it with Baldurs Gate 3) but it'll cut into profits massively. Even Larian are never doing it again.

by AnotherGoodName

12/30/2025 at 3:16:53 AM

Possibly this is a hot-take, but: Divinity Original Sin 2 was better than Baldurs Gate 3. The combat is so much better (DnD combat in a video game is always too swingy, the system relies on having a sentient DM who can make a story happen even after you critical fail). The things people like about BG3 (the story and characters) could have been done just as well Larian’s system. DnD probably hindered the actual quality of the game.

But, the DnD IP really got them a massive audience. I’m glad they got a hit, they deserve it. Looking forward to see what they do with their own system and a massive budget.

by bee_rider

12/29/2025 at 9:37:17 PM

I've had negative opinion on company behind Warhammer ever since Emperor TTS debacle

everything I've heard since only confirms that that universe would be better dead and never be talked about

by NooneAtAll3

12/29/2025 at 11:11:47 PM

I've been noticing a bit of 'totally not Warhammer but grimdark and space marines' settings being used more these days.

Void War game on Steam is a notable one.

by Sabinus

12/29/2025 at 10:31:02 PM

What was the debacle?

I doubt the 40K universe will die any time soon, it has many fans and they are hardcore about it. And it's becoming more and more mainstream (relatively).

by the_af

12/30/2025 at 2:33:07 AM

The "If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device" youtube series, which was in some ways one of the best pieces of Warhammer content made in years, had to be stopped because GW gave the author a cease-and-desist.

I think that their approach to fan uses of their IP is far too tight, and that they'd actually be making more money if they had, say, just licensed it. A bit like how they actually harmed their own hobby videos quite a bit with their reactions to their on-air talent leaving to go independent. Nowadays GW is the last place you'd go for painting videos, and the popular content they still have is old, and created by those people that left. But given the way the law works, they are within their right to manage things badly.

Just this year, I hear a very large percentage of the people that were in their external creators network decided to give up the early access, because the restrictions had become way too tight, even for simple things like people painting their miniatures.

by hibikir

12/30/2025 at 3:04:53 AM

Ah, thanks for the info.

Yeah, GW shenanigans. Like you said, people like the universe they created, not the company and its draconian practices.

by the_af

12/29/2025 at 10:06:11 PM

Henry Cavill would have words with you. There are some extremely die-hard fans in the U.K. just like there are die hard fans of Star Wars here in the US.

by reactordev

12/29/2025 at 10:26:46 PM

Lots of people love the Warhammer universe. Far fewer people love Games Workshop as a company.

by jandrese

12/29/2025 at 10:38:38 PM

Just like there’s lots of people that love Star Wars and far fewer that love Disney?

by reactordev

12/29/2025 at 10:48:51 PM

Or even George Lucas.

by jandrese

12/29/2025 at 9:27:27 PM

Prey (2006) https://delistedgames.com/prey/

Great game, with some innovative level design involving portals and gravity manipulation. Delisted back in 2009 and impossible to acquire legally to this day on PC.

by shantara

12/29/2025 at 9:55:23 PM

I've got this game in my steam library, and I wondered why no one ever talks about it. I never realized it was delisted and made impossible to buy so long ago.

by Apes

12/29/2025 at 10:24:58 PM

The original story was definitely unique and a fun play on 360.

by ganoushoreilly

12/29/2025 at 11:01:07 PM

Until I looked it up, I almost thought my memory of it was the Bernstein effect especially since there’s a 2017 game by the same name and much more popular.

by hombre_fatal

12/29/2025 at 11:15:00 PM

The sequel to Prey (2006) was stuck in development hell for really long until they finally scrapped it, so the publisher placed the trademark on a completely different but similarly themed game instead.

by debugnik

12/30/2025 at 6:08:05 AM

Amazing game.

I remember a level where I went through a portal that led to the surface of a miniature moon, encased in a glass case inside the room that I entered through. Inside the case and miniaturized, I watched the enemy aliens scatter around to look for me. They found me and barged through that portal, so I went back out and smashed them through the case. Alien pussies on the wall, the whole artwork and design of the game was utterly unfettered.

The ending made me feel so… powerful. David and Goliath -core, heavy metal native american going through the spirit land to save the human race from aliens. I didn’t know it was delisted. What a shame.

by Kiboneu

12/30/2025 at 11:13:28 AM

The scene with the planetoid hovering in the middle of a room was made me remember the game despite playing it more than 15 years ago. It was so ahead of its time!

by shantara

12/29/2025 at 10:36:06 PM

There's a set of licensed music in the game that's likely another reason too sadly. Pretty unique game for the time and I'd redeemed it on Steam from the cd key in a used physical copy I bought dirt cheap.

by jordand

12/31/2025 at 12:05:39 AM

You can still get it used on disc. Pretty sure it predates being a Steam key in a box.

by chocochunks

12/30/2025 at 2:28:02 AM

The intro and first level is one hell of a ride. Had no idea it was delisted but that explains why nobody's talking about it...

by rjh29

12/30/2025 at 7:25:30 AM

One of the most creative and original games ever made.

by blumenkraft

12/29/2025 at 8:33:37 PM

Mostly seems to be games where the licensing deal expired or the company folded. I was expecting to see a few more from the adult category that got delisted because someone noticed TOS violating material and reported it.

There was a recent video about Horses, which admittedly was a pre-release, but was technically available for download and is now gone. It is not on this list.

by jandrese

12/29/2025 at 9:00:42 PM

Yeah, brand licensing seems to be by far the most common reason for games to be delisted. A couple of other common ones seem to be:

1) Server shutdowns for multiplayer or live service games

2) Breakdowns of developer/publisher relations

3) A remastered version of the game was released

by duskwuff

12/29/2025 at 9:14:55 PM

Idk how common it is anymore, but one game (which seems to be missing from this list) I know was removed from Steam after the early access launch from a Kickstarter campaign. The developers essentially quickly ghosted the game after the EA, considering the Kickstarter complete and taking their money. It was seen as a pretty big scandal in the early days when we had some standards.

by TechSquidTV

12/31/2025 at 2:38:33 AM

I've never purchased an adult game on steam, but I leave them on because it's quite funny sometimes to stumble across them in my discovery queue. Lots of them have excellent reviews. Not as in they always leave glowing reviews. But they leave gooner reviews that make me chuckle. From the games I've seen advertised, I'm not sure what sort of sexual content would get a game delisted from Steam. Some are "artsy" projects, but many are straight up porn simulators.

by tstrimple

12/30/2025 at 8:17:09 AM

I remember when I was a kid I found a game where the goal was to sexually harass girls. It was in the times where sex crime in games was "a strange Japanese thing" rather than "a deadly sin". I distinctly remember a level where I was supposed to harass a girl in the subway but the only action I knew how to perform was clicking on the titty so I massaged the fuck out of that titty. It was funny.

I'm not even attracted to women. It was just enticing to play "the forbidden game".

by anal_reactor

12/30/2025 at 3:37:38 AM

One of the more interesting ones is the Taiwanese game Devotion:

https://delistedgames.com/devotion/

Taken down because a background poster depicted "Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh moron".

by wk_end

12/29/2025 at 9:34:47 PM

Great resource. I have a fair number of them purchased.

-- Back to the Future: The Game

-- Blur

-- Crysis

-- Dark Souls

-- Dirt 2

-- Dirt 3

-- Dirt Showdown

-- F1 2010 - 2015

-- F1 Race Stars

-- Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, 3, San Andreas, Vice City

-- Grid (2019)

-- Metro 2033

-- Prey (2006)

-- Project CARS

-- ToCA Race Driver 3

-- Transformers: War for Cybertron

-- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

In most cases the games were delisted because of expiring licenses for cars, tracks, music, or studios being purchased by another studio.

It's a bit sad as I consider Crysis and GTA to be an important part of gaming history.

by Shorel

12/29/2025 at 9:48:00 PM

It's all gaming history and a sadly-overlooked part of "Stop Killing Games".

The worst part is the licenses that do exist are non-transferrable, so by the end of this century there will be zero licenses left for these games. They'll just be expunged until they become public domain perhaps in the middle of the next century - if any copies survive.

And what's sad about that is we know for a fact games can survive and be enjoyed for decades, because we have seen this occur for the entire lineage of game-playing machines.

by benoau

12/29/2025 at 9:48:29 PM

Same reason why Ace combat will never get a remake.

If you use real brands in your videogame you as a developer need to know that it's on a death clock.

by TitaRusell

12/29/2025 at 9:57:54 PM

Or just sign a licensing deal that doesn’t expire?

by dghlsakjg

12/29/2025 at 10:40:58 PM

That presumes you can find someone to agree to those terms (which you won't), and if they do, that it isn't a prohibitively expensive fee (which it would be).

by zomiaen

12/31/2025 at 12:15:12 AM

Why wouldn't they?

The license should be to use the likeness for a given purpose. Either make it perpetual or per copy, not per time. Product breaking licenses should not be allowed in most situations.

by LorenPechtel

12/29/2025 at 10:38:02 PM

No licensor is going to do that.

by Uvix

12/30/2025 at 8:19:24 PM

I just wonder why movies get away with licenses for both music and depicting cars etc. for eternity. Seems like they just added weird unnecessary rules for video games. I also imagine a situation where Stephen King has to renew with Plymouth every few years. Seems ridiculous for any other art form why is it so easily accepted for this one?

by ragequittah

12/30/2025 at 2:31:31 AM

There are only 1,038 delisted games out of 100,000+ games on Steam, so there are willing licensors. Some may offer perpetual licenses, but want a royalty. It might be easier to delist a game than to manage the ongoing paperwork.

by WillPostForFood

12/30/2025 at 3:41:41 AM

Most games don't have that sort of licensed content to start with, so comparing to the total population of games isn't meaningful.

Offering a perpetual license would limit the licensor's options (e.g. they could never offer someone else an exclusive license, nor could they adjust the rates if the brand becomes more popular, nor could they terminate if the developer/publisher becomes toxic), so I guess while it's theoretically possible I just don't see why they'd want to offer such a license.

by Uvix

12/30/2025 at 6:52:43 AM

It is meaningful if the claim that perpetual licenses don't exist. They do. The terminology is often mocked, but comes in handy in case like this: "in perpetuity, throughout the universe".

by WillPostForFood

12/30/2025 at 2:51:57 AM

I despise that licensing is a thing in video games. They're an art form and you should be able to depict whatever you want. I don't care if Porsche, John Deere or Sig Sauer get their feelings hurt because someone made art.

by HNisCIS

12/30/2025 at 3:50:38 AM

If you call something a Porsche, John Deere, or a Sig Sauer and inaccurately represent it you're doing brand damage especially in the modern era where it could become a toxic meme on TikTok or whatever.

That's no good and should be prevented.

Developers could pony up for perpetual licenses if they cared but they don't.

by voidfunc

12/30/2025 at 9:34:37 AM

This is a thing dreamed up by IP lawyers to justify their own employment. Brands do far more damage to themselves by suing small companies than they could ever take from being represented in a work of art, even negatively.

It was always unpopular to be seen as a manipulator, the control freak who "manages" their image with punitive measures. But it has probably never been as unpopular as it is right now. John Deere would be more popular from tossing their brand management lawyers from the fifth floor than they would from listening to them.

The ONLY time a big brand has anything to complain about, is when they are said to have endorsed something they didn't.

by vintermann

12/30/2025 at 6:01:46 AM

I was under the impression that most gameplay scenarios are positive exposure for real-world brands. The kid who spends 500 hours of his childhood driving around specific cars in games is developing brand preferences before he ever steps foot in a dealership.

A smart brand would be eager to undercut their competitors for licensing-- even to the point of giving them away free, assuming the negotiate positive brand exposure.

by hakfoo

12/30/2025 at 1:32:15 PM

I definitely agree with you but lawyers don't do common sense.

by expedition32

12/30/2025 at 3:58:19 PM

By that logic you should be charged licensing fees to post a product review online

by HNisCIS

12/30/2025 at 4:10:13 AM

I'm sure perp licences are more expensive, also nobody should be forbidden from using brands for artistic purposes. If a company licences the color "red" for their branding and it henceforth requires licencing for use they can shove that idea up their rear

by xkcd1963

12/30/2025 at 6:47:53 PM

#+ BEGIN_ART

Here's my John Deere™ tractor:

   _____
   |o  |   !
   |:`_|---'-.
   '_'.-JD--.|
  '._.'     (-)
It's a heap of shit, overpriced and unrepairable. It smells like farts, but does have a sweet green paintjob.

#+ END_ART

Should I have asked the corpos for a license before exhibiting my art?

by Y_Y

12/30/2025 at 4:11:19 AM

Do all of these still work?

Is Steam obligated to continue to support old games until they no longer exist to support them, or can they stop supporting them at any time?

by breakin2

12/30/2025 at 5:30:04 AM

Depends on what you mean by "still work". If you bought them, you can download and play them. If you mean "Do they work on modern OS", it depends entirely on the game. You also have games that are still being sold but don't properly work on modern OSes without community patches (one example is Max Payne 1).

by skotobaza

12/30/2025 at 9:12:35 AM

If you are asking if I can still download and play them?

Then the answer is yes.

by Shorel

12/29/2025 at 10:16:47 PM

At least the GTA games and metro 2033 are still available for purchase on steam, just the remastered versions. When they released those, the older versions were delisted

by jaapz

12/30/2025 at 12:00:06 AM

Rereleased GTA games have a lot of iconic music removed from their radio soundtracks due to expired licenses.

by shantara

12/30/2025 at 3:41:50 AM

At least for the PC versions of Vice City and San Andreas, the originals are missing the music too. A bunch of licenses expired 10 years after release and the Steam releases got updated accordingly.

by neckro23

12/30/2025 at 1:31:52 AM

It doesn't feel the same playing GTA4 without the music.

by doublerabbit

12/29/2025 at 10:49:21 PM

Ahh, there seems to be a distinction between "delisted" and "purchase disabled". This is a list of all games which are no longer available on steam along with the reason: https://steam-tracker.com/

by bananaboy

12/30/2025 at 3:46:47 AM

Oh, it includes the Abuse-like HL2 platformer that I played while waiting for HL2 to install, apparently named "Codename: Gordon". https://delistedgames.com/codename-gordon/

I'm glad I found this, as it includes a steam:/ URL that lets me re-install it if I'd like to play it again.

by syncsynchalt

12/29/2025 at 9:59:39 PM

This can’t be all of them. My business partner and I delisted our tiny (unsuccessful) indie game after we wound up our company and our game doesn’t show up here.

by bananaboy

12/29/2025 at 11:13:26 PM

Ultimately, all the datasets on Steam are scraped one way or another, since Steam themselves don't seem to publish it. I could be that they simply never came across your project before you delisted it, and of course after delisiting it I don't think they'll ever come across it.

by embedding-shape

12/30/2025 at 2:27:24 AM

Hm yeah. We removed it a few years ago now so I assume they should have found it though. We followed these instructions and had to contact valve and give a justification https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/retire_app I don’t remember the details of the form but maybe there were options and one amounts to being delisted and another amounts to just no longer being visible and available for sale.

by bananaboy

12/30/2025 at 10:00:46 AM

"Deslisted" == "no longer being visible". If it's delisted it won't show up in search results, tag listings and more. So if you just had it online for a few weeks, that was the only moment the scrapers could find it. If they didn't catch it at that point, they'll never catch it.

by embedding-shape

12/31/2025 at 10:37:58 AM

Ah yeah, I guess https://steam-tracker.com/ scrapes regularly as it shows up there (it's called Resynth)

by bananaboy

12/29/2025 at 11:43:07 PM

The nice move in this scenario would have been to make the game free instead of delisting. Gamers can still enjoy it, and you don't have to worry about income once the company is closed.

by LorenDB

12/30/2025 at 2:22:52 AM

It actually is free on itch.io, and people on steam who bought it still have access to it. Keeping it on steam required us to maintain our company registration which we didn’t want to do since it’s a waste of money and time as we weren’t planning on doing anything more with it.

by bananaboy

12/30/2025 at 1:36:25 PM

Ah, that makes sense.

by LorenDB

12/30/2025 at 7:48:15 AM

what is the game?

by tpoacher

12/29/2025 at 9:50:12 PM

I was surprised to see that StarForge wasn't on this list, and after looking into it I think it's because after it was delisted someone else published another game named StarForge. I wonder how common that is.

by FloorEgg

12/30/2025 at 1:19:23 AM

What are the uniqueness requirements for titles, For the most part people are reasonable and don't want to stomp on each others names. however there are bad actors and this is usually where trademark law comes into play to help protect the name, but does steam impose additional uniqueness constraints on top of this?

That might be a fun list, games with the same name.

by somat

12/29/2025 at 8:38:12 PM

I bought my 2 yo a copy of Rocket League when they announced it would only be available through Epic (no Linux support) once it went F2P, just in case he was going to get into it. Best game in the world, but I'm not subjecting myself, or my kid, to Windows and the Epic store just to get at it.

I'm quite surprised Epic hasn't done something to kill off the Steam version yet, but I expect the recent bot problem is going to give them the "justification" they need to put EAC in it. Even if it "works" on Linux after that, I'll be in constant fear that my account, with hundreds of dollars into the game, will get banned without recourse.

by kgwxd

12/29/2025 at 9:49:38 PM

> Best game in the world, but I'm not subjecting myself, or my kid, to Windows and the Epic store just to get at it.

Quite right! I really don't blame you, given the direction that Windows has taken in the last decade, and especially the last few years. The LLM integration is bad enough (Kids and LLMs should not mix, IMHO), but he adverts in the start menu could be anything. I've had some very explicit 18+ adverts on a social media platform twice this week, despite not engaging with that kind of thing at all, and the best I could do was report them.

> I'm quite surprised Epic hasn't done something to kill off the Steam version yet, but I expect the recent bot problem is going to give them the "justification" they need to put EAC in it. Even if it "works" on Linux after that, I'll be in constant fear that my account, with hundreds of dollars into the game, will get banned without recourse.

For what it's worth, Easy Anti-Cheat is supported and doesn't ban you for using Linux.

by fao_

12/29/2025 at 8:45:16 PM 

    subjecting myself, or my kid, to Windows and the Epic store just to get at it.
Subjecting is a weird word choice here considering most of us rely on using Windows in some fashion in our education or work. Which OS or store you use is not your identity and EGS takes a significantly smaller cut from developers, so I prefer to buy there when I can as I don't care for social features from Steam aside from the workshop on some games.

by b40d-48b2-979e

12/29/2025 at 8:57:29 PM

I loved Blacklight Retribution. It's been so long delisted that my most unique achievements from it disappeared from my profile. One was 0.01% of all players.

by ivolimmen

12/30/2025 at 5:20:11 PM

There is a fan project that has revived the servers. It’s hard to get full matches but can still be played at least. It’s called BLRevive, there’s a Discord for it. IMO the only bad thing is it’s based on the post-PS4 update where the devs console-fied the game.

by variadix

12/29/2025 at 10:56:35 PM

It's surprising that it doesn't seem like the X-ray mechanic (which is the main thing I remember from that game) was really picked up by any other game. There were way fewer cheating accusations than in other games, because what would normally be a "cheat" was a core game mechanic, and IMO that made it really enjoyable. It's a shame that game died.

by Zambyte

12/29/2025 at 11:10:04 PM

I'm sad that Platine Dispositif pulled their games. Chelsea Has to Beat the Seven Devils to Death (known more widely in English as Bunny Must Die) was a lot of fun and one day I'd like to play some of their others, but they mostly seem to just release on Switch and Playstation stores in recent years. Their site[1] is getting pretty bitrotted, and their blog has an entry from a month ago[2] talking about their next game displayed in Digital Games Expo 2025. I don't immediately see any mention of Steam or intent to return anywhere.

These are in Japanese of course.

[1]: https://www.platinedispositif.net/

[2]: https://murasame.hatenablog.jp/entry/20251130/1764507793

by ekipan

12/29/2025 at 11:10:48 PM

Lost Planet 2 was delisted in 2021 because it can't be played without patching out Games for Windows Live.

The delisting was supposed to be temporary until Capcom removed the dependency, like they did with other titles on the same engine, but so far they haven't bothered restoring this one.

by debugnik

12/30/2025 at 12:33:05 AM

The older Metro games are of note, while they're available as the Redux versions there are a surprising number of non-graphical differences between the original THQ published versions and the graphical updates.

by some_random

12/29/2025 at 8:44:47 PM

If you want to follow and get notice : https://steamcommunity.com/groups/RemGC

"This is a place for those who have a moderately large collection of removed games (games no longer available for purchase on steam) to gather. For most, this group will just be about the name, showing off that you own what others no longer can. For others, it can be a resource to find what you once believed could no longer be found."

by markx2

12/31/2025 at 7:19:27 AM

"I specifically checked to see if 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' was delisted.

While the game was upgraded to the 'Director's Cut,' the original version (without the Director's Cut content) is no longer available."

by yq

12/30/2025 at 12:01:05 AM

What does "delisted" mean in this context?

- are they preventing new purchases?

- are they preventing the players who purchased the game prior to the delisting to play them at all?

- both? something else?

by lurker_jMckQT99

12/30/2025 at 12:02:27 AM

First one

by oceansky

12/29/2025 at 9:13:37 PM

Jesus I thought it'd be obscure games but I randomly scrolled down and saw Duke Nukem games, a bunch of the F1 series, Jet Set Radio, Lumines, Mafia III, MultiVersus (don't care about this I just remember _so many_ people being paid to stream this, there was a lot of money behind it) and Wolfenstein (2009). I had no idea this was so prevalent

by smcl

12/29/2025 at 9:40:07 PM

>Mafia III was delisted from Steam on May 19th, 2020 when it was replaced with Mafia III: Definitive Edition

>Lumines was delisted from Steam on June 22nd, 2018. The delisting coincides with the release of Lumines Remastered just a few days later

So there's a tactic of delisting a game to promote a remastered version.

by kgeist

12/31/2025 at 12:19:30 AM

When a game gets remastered it's still around, so what if the original version is delisted?

by LorenPechtel

12/30/2025 at 7:52:09 AM

still sucks though

imagine removing the original lionking for the same reason

by tpoacher

12/29/2025 at 9:43:12 PM

Fair enough

by smcl

12/29/2025 at 9:41:28 PM

I just want Poker Night, and Poker Night 2 :(

by RobRivera

12/30/2025 at 4:18:47 AM

Of those are at the Inventory; they’re good.

by bombcar

12/29/2025 at 9:25:55 PM

Transformers: Fall/War of Cybertron went away and never came back. I'm still waiting...

by Rzor

12/29/2025 at 8:32:39 PM

DiRT games hit hard

by gegtik

12/29/2025 at 8:57:13 PM

Transformers: War For Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, and (especially) Devastation.

Three games I will cherish in my Steam Library (and my physical PS3 copy of War for Cybertron). Anything Transformers based since these have been mediocre at best.

by throwatdem12311

12/29/2025 at 8:45:16 PM

death stranding is in there

I remember that many games I had in my wishlist became "blank" or removed, and I was unable to know what games were those

by jokoon

12/29/2025 at 8:47:28 PM

It was superseded by the Director’s Cut edition. So you can buy DS but not the original launch edition

That’s actually a case with a lot of games on the list that got a remake, director’s cut, upgraded edition etc.

by haunter

12/29/2025 at 9:23:16 PM

This site has a tag for games that get relisted, but it really needs one for games that got remastered as well. It's a bit misleading to say a game is gone when you can still buy the GOTY version.

Really, it would be nice if every listing had a 1 or 2 word tag that summarized the reason for the de-listing.

Publisher Closed

Servers Shut Down

Remastered

License Expired

TOS Violation

That sort of thing.

by jandrese

12/30/2025 at 8:26:46 AM

It's only misleading to say so if the edition that replaces it is not strictly worse in at least one axis: Botched remasters, full remakes, unrenewed licenses, ports from a worse version of the game instead of the original...

Now, if there's actually a better release of the same game, then sure it should be at least tagged clearly.

by debugnik

12/30/2025 at 5:16:03 AM

>I was unable to know what games were those

You can check by copying the url of the blank game and pasting it into SteamDB's search field.

by skotobaza

12/29/2025 at 8:36:34 PM

interesting i bought bloodrayne a long time ago

if i delete it i lose the game right?

by agentifysh

12/29/2025 at 9:17:44 PM

No, the games just disappear from the shop and can no longer be bought via Steam. When you are already own them, you keep them. Third party seller might sometimes also still sell remaining Steam Key inventory and thus offer a way to activate a delisted game on Steam.

One area where content can disappear is music licenses, those often don't result in a complete delisting of the game, but just the music getting patched out of the game. In those cases, the music would be gone for everybody, as Steam game updates are mandatory and you can't downgrade the game to a previous version either. Unofficial mods will sometimes address this issue and add the music back in.

by grumbel

12/29/2025 at 11:39:17 PM

> Steam game updates are mandatory and you can't downgrade the game to a previous version either.

For Crusader Kings III, the old versions are listed as betas (cog -> properties -> betas) so you downgrade by "signing up to a beta".

I don't know if it's a common practice but pretty damn necessary for paradox games. A single game might take months and their attitude to backwards compatibility is "new versions will corrupt your game files in ways that only subtly reveal themselves like noticing the King of England owns a county in Mongolia before reaching a game year that will always crash".

by Fluorescence

12/29/2025 at 9:38:38 PM

> Steam game updates are mandatory and you can't downgrade the game to a previous version either.

You can usually download old versions from the CDN using tools like steamcmd. Developers can remove the old depots, but usually don't.

by duskwuff

12/29/2025 at 8:38:01 PM

No these games still install and run via steam just fine.

by AnotherGoodName

12/29/2025 at 9:09:37 PM

The are delisted for purchase but still available to download from Steam’s CDN for the Steam client. I own 3 delisted Transformers games but was able to reinstall them recently.

Tangentially related but even though the Nintendo 3DS e-shop has been shutdown for years you can still download your purchased games through your download history.

I was very happy just last week I was able to redownload Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for my 3DS despite the store being down.

It gives me at least a little bit of confidence that having some games as part of a digital library on the Switch and Switch 2 will be easily available for the foreseeable future.

by throwatdem12311

12/29/2025 at 8:43:34 PM

We should just setup a review portal at the Dept of State, Visa, MasterCard, maybe moms against drunk driving, a few others, and devs can sanity check their game idea before submitting to steam

by user3939382

12/29/2025 at 9:12:09 PM

It's missing The Stomping Land

by TechSquidTV

12/31/2025 at 7:22:51 AM

[dead]

by Andrew987

12/30/2025 at 12:08:39 AM

I love how they decided to sell a new Mortal Kombat arcade collection instead of removing GFWL and reinstating the older one. /s

by pedrohlc

12/29/2025 at 10:01:54 PM

[flagged]

by cwmoore

12/29/2025 at 10:37:16 PM

When you bought a game and it becomes unavailable, due to delisting, you care.

It shows a general problem we have with online license's for movies, series and games. You buy the product and at some point later in time you loose access because something changed outside of your control. This is different from VHS/CD/DVD/BluRays where I can use the product even years after purchasing, despite a company loosing the license or simply not existing anymore.

by Skyy93

12/30/2025 at 1:00:49 PM

FWIW Delisting in this context is just removing it from the store for purchase. It doesn't remove it from your library, nor remove your ability to download it.

Your concerns for digital licenses are totally valid but his specific topic isn't that.

by natebc

12/31/2025 at 8:30:30 AM

Interesting, I did not know that and assumed something far worse from the "delisting". Thanks for the clearification.

by Skyy93

12/29/2025 at 11:17:15 PM

Why even leave this comment?

by 0_gravitas

12/30/2025 at 4:49:54 PM

So you know there is an alternative.

by cwmoore