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Licensed Activision Games Disappearing From Digital Stores, Including Platinum Games Titles
People on the forum ResetEra noticed today that Transformers games are suddenly not available on PlayStation Network and Steam. It was then noticed the the licensed Legend of Korra game made by Platinum also disappeared, without warning.
The missing titles include Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, Transformers: Devastation, and The Legend of Korra. For whatever reason, the games are still available on Xbox Live on a deep discount that was not given to either PSN or Steam stores before their delisting.
While it is likely that Activision's licenses for these games necessitated they pull it from digital stores, it is exceedingly unlikely the date just snuck up on them, and it is rare for non-Activision publishers to delist games without warnings or sales. The Deadpool game was delisted six months after release in 2014, then came back, and then got delisted again last month. Last year, Platinum Games' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, was pulled eight months after release. For many of these games, there is no physical release to pick up if a digital copy has been removed.
We've reached out to Activision for comment and will update the story when they get back to us.
Our Take
While a lot of these games weren't exactly great, some were pretty good, and it's a shame Activision thinks so little of them that they wouldn't even warn people they were about to disappear. Their view of games as purely ephemeral feels bad from a preservationist perspective.
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