Spec Ops: The Line Has Been Removed From Xbox's Storefront

Shame...this is possibly THE most harrowing military shooter ever made.

Wow. A bit of a heads-up would have been appreciated 2K. I already have it thankfully but this is legitimately one of the best narratives ever made. A real shame.

Was there ever a reason given why armed and dangerous and indiana jones bc were removed from store?

Glad I have my physical copy from yesteryear.

An absolutely fantastically made and written game.

I loathe to use it, but it is the very definition of "subverting the genre".

It is a shame that with this removal so many people won't be able to experience it now for lack of hearing of it or even seeing it on store shelves.

This is one of those game I would absolutely "day 1" a proper remake with the narrative left absolutely the same.

Damn. It would have been nice to know, but hey, I should have bought it already if I was really interested.

@Beetlebum91 'Indiana Jones Emperers Tomb' and 'Armed and Dangerous' are both LucasArts titles, so that may have something to do with it. :/

@Scummbuddy it's just weird they have so many old star wars games on there still. You're probably right though.

I never understood these silent removals of games from stores, even for music licensing ending or similar. How have more of these corporations not gone after that Fear Of Missing Out and alert all that "hey, that game you never bought, well it's got 3 days left on the store. Better get it or it's gone forever".
-not that I want games to ever leave a store, but why wouldn't they want that influx of sales right before the game is out of the store??

@Beetlebum91 I just wrote Craig Derrick about it on Twitter. Maybe he'll respond.

@InterceptorAlpha It's a shame that "Spec Ops: The Line" is one of the most generic titles ever for a game. Plus, the way it was advertised, it was depicted like your standard, cookie cutter, military TPS. Yawn... 🥱 Then one gets into it, and aside from it's solid gameplay, it's story is unbelievably awesome and indeed, subversive. The twist is completely unexpected and superbly well executed. 👏😄

Truly a shame to yet another great (and very unique) game digitally delisted, lost to the mists of time... 😭 And without any warning either. Shameful!

@Scummbuddy thank you! Keep me posted if you hear back please

@Scummbuddy @Beetlebum91 It's always weird to me when companies lose a license deal, buy it back, but don't relist everything to get the most out of it. Like how Lego The Hobbit & Lego LotR were delisted, they got the license back, and only The Hobbit was relisted on console while LotR was only relisted on Steam.

@shoeses sure is weird. If I ran a big gaming company I'd be putting everything in the back catalogue up for purchase. One of the more positive things to see is disney putting up ps1 games on ps4/ps5. Games I thought I'd never see again like phantom menace.

It baffles me that when something gets removed from the store they dont make a big deal and advertise it as that will lead to alot of lasty minute purchases. you know money 2K thats why your in this business

Honestly, this is the stuff that makes it hard to root for all digital.
And I've been ok with all digital for a while now but this is just lame.

I thought it was a GWG title previously. Turns out it was PS Plus title a while back. Shame they didn't have one last push for sales before delisting to earn themselves a few last minute pennies. Guess I will have to fire up my PS3 if I want to play this now.

I really hope I've still got my physical copy somewhere this is why an all digital future isn't something I'm looking forward too.

Glad I snapped it up last year in a sale, still didn’t get round to playing it. But I did already finish it on Steam many years ago thankfully. Still, always sad to see delistings… I don’t know what the solution is, if any.

Thankfully, I have the game on disc. Indeed, I think there maybe more than one copy in my house as I think I bought it for my son too...

And Steam, and PlayStation.

I got this with PS+ on my PS3 ages ago. Should grab it phsyically while I can.

@OrfeasDourvas To play the digital devil's advocate, this game was only delisted, not removed from everyone's library.
Physical games get "delisted" (i.e., they disappear from store shelves) all the time, and usually much sooner than their digital counterparts.
I don't favour an all-digital future either, but digital distribution is the best way to keep older games available for years or decades after release.
There's a place for both.

I already own a digital copy so I’m glad this news didn’t catch me off guard, it’s such a good game. Was there no warning at all that the game was going to be delisted? Also whatever the licensing issue was, couldn’t the game of just been patched? Same goes for other games that have music licenses that have expired or certain car manufacturers, just patch them out of the game instead of delisting it completely.