This situation began a few weeks when it was announced that the Marvel vs. Capcom games were being removed from sale on PSN and XBLA. Now another Marvel licensed title has been taken down from PSN, XBLA and Steam, that being Deadpool.
If you search Deadpool on Steam you only get links to a trailer or Lego Marvel Super Heroes, while on PSN you just get costumes for the LittleBigPlanet games, and on XBLA an error message is displayed. It’s quite a big removal considering the game only released six months ago in June.
The removal of Deadpool shows that something is going on with the Marvel licenses. My guess is that Disney are taking back Marvel properties to develop games themselves instead of striking deals with third party publishers such as Activision or Capcom.
Or Disney has been unhappy with how the properties have been used by these publishers so will be moving them somewhere else like EA, who have the Star Wars license, or Ubisoft. Considering how big Marvel heroes are at the moment, Disney will want to have games that are met with positive reception and profit.
UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Marvel and Activision have terminated their licensing deal and the following games are no longer available:
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, X-Men: The Official Game, X-Men Destiny, Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Source: GAF
Eldur
Interesting, especially given Disney’s less than stellar licensed title.
A bit non sequitur, but any word on what’s happened to that Arkham announcement that was supposed to happen last night?
Aran Suddi
I shall have look around
Yorozuya
mr freeze DLC?
TheDemocrodile
Good. Terrible game.
Forrest_01
‘Terrible’ is a bit strong – I have played a LOT worse.
hazelam
Steam remove a game from peoples library, GOG remove the Fallout titles and now this.
great start to the year. o_O
anyway, i would imagine there was a timeframe agreed for how long they could sell the title when Activision got the license.
and i can’t believe they’d make the game if they were only able to sell it for six months.
Yorozuya
Yeah, I won’t be buying Injustice incase thats ever removed (kidding). Steam’s capable of removing a game even from the library.. well just inactive games that are online only but hopefully it doesn’t spread to licensed material.
Kennykazey
I’ve already downloaded Deadpool after buying it during the latest Steamsale. I assume if you’ve already bought it, it will remain downloadable.
Yorozuya
We’ll probably see Assassins Creed: Days of Future Past then. Still I pray that the Marvel properties are in good hands and that there could be another Marvel vs Capcom in the future. Its still sad that Disney feels the need to remove the games unless they actually lose “profit” on them.
parryman
Disney marvel infinity games
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id)
Interesting, i just got marvel vs capcom 2 before it went. At least they mentioned it was gonna be delisted, makes me think about marvel vs capcom origins, might have to snap it up before it gets the delistment treatment too!