Delisted and Lost Games

[LaserMoose]

What are some notable games that have been delisted or lost to time for one reason or another? These can range from MMOs that had a short lifespan, or a digital-only title that has been unavailable for purchase in second-hand markets.

The intention behind this thread is to gain more insight on games that have been forgotten due to their limited availability. The most notable example I have in mind would be:

Ixion Saga, an MMO by Capcom that was released in 2013, and was discontinued in late 2015. The game never left Japan, and featured three different classes, having the option of being a Striker, Blaster, or Caster.

Ixion Saga had 8v8 PvP battles for players to engage in, along with fights against larger beasts similar to Capcom's Monster Hunter games. Here are two screenshots from the game:

The game also had a tie-in anime series known as Ixion Saga DT. As far as I am aware, there are no available ways to play this game in any shape or form. The game is effectively lost.

I'd love to hear more about games that have been lost to time!

 

[Yousef]

They’re usually obtainable on archive.org

 

[DunkeyKong]

A lot really, ranging from old school to early 2000s. But my favorite would be Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Unreal Tournament

 

[LaserMoose]

A lot really, ranging from old school to early 2000s. But my favorite would be Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Unreal Tournament
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Fortunately for Bad Company 2 and Unreal Tournament, both had physical releases on systems. The official servers appear to be down, and you cannot buy them digitally anywhere, but at least the games have a physical form.

By delisted and lost, I'm moreso referring to games that lack a physical release.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Fortunately for Bad Company 2 and Unreal Tournament, both had physical releases on systems. The official servers appear to be down, and you cannot buy them digitally anywhere, but at least the games have a physical form.

By delisted and lost, I'm moreso referring to games that lack a physical release.

Ah I see, that'll be a bit hard to know. But I guess that'll probably be Left 4 Dead and Spec Ops: The Line

 

[LaserMoose]

Ah I see, that'll be a bit hard to know. But I guess that'll probably be Left 4 Dead and Spec Ops: The Line
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Left 4 Dead 2 is a particularly interesting case, as the DLC on Xbox systems was made unavailable with the closure of the 360 marketplace. It was only available there, and not on the Xbox One's or the Series' marketplace.

The game is backwards compatible on the Xbox One and Series X if you have it on disc, but you cannot buy the game itself digitally. It is one of the very few games I can think of that is like this. So for this reason, new owners of the Left 4 Dead 2's physical release on Xbox will not be able to buy the DLC.

 

[abakuke]

Ah I see, that'll be a bit hard to know. But I guess that'll probably be Left 4 Dead and Spec Ops: The Line
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Spec Ops have a phisical release on 360 and PS3. Left 4 Dead 2 too XD

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

I think Driver: San Francisco is delisted and its a god-tier game

 

[Skeleben]

When flash was taken off the internet, we lost a lot of media. Huge efforts have been made to preserve lots of globalized flash games, but down here in Australia, there was quite a booming flash game business. Unfortunately, too many of these flash games have been completely lost to time. And only exist in the memories of Aussies who grew up with them. Here are a few of the ones I could find with some form of files/gameplay still accessible on the internet, they bring back some very fond memories, but far too many others are seemingly lost forever. (Bottom one is called 'Eggbert Emu')

 

[KirboDeku]

Shovelware on old online shops, like for the DSi, Wii, 3DS, etc.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Delisted but Accessible by other means.

 

[LaserMoose]

Since I mentioned the DLC from Left 4 Dead 2, I'll mention another example of lost DLC, which comes from Dragon Ball Raging Blast 2:

The 12 Pre-Order bonus costumes from Raging Blast 2 are also considered to be lost media. You can't buy them normally since they were only available for pre-ordering the game, and they are not available online for download anywhere, either.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

What are some notable games that have been delisted or lost to time for one reason or another? These can range from MMOs that had a short lifespan, or a digital-only title that has been unavailable for purchase in second-hand markets.

The intention behind this thread is to gain more insight on games that have been forgotten due to their limited availability. The most notable example I have in mind would be:

View attachment 47619
Ixion Saga, an MMO by Capcom that was released in 2013, and was discontinued in late 2015. The game never left Japan, and featured three different classes, having the option of being a Striker, Blaster, or Caster.

Ixion Saga had 8v8 PvP battles for players to engage in, along with fights against larger beasts similar to Capcom's Monster Hunter games. Here are two screenshots from the game:

View attachment 47620

View attachment 47623
The game also had a tie-in anime series known as Ixion Saga DT. As far as I am aware, there are no available ways to play this game in any shape or form. The game is effectively lost.

I'd love to hear more about games that have been lost to time!

This game is quite literally only playable by piracy. It was delisted from Steam along with the rest of the series in 2022 as a result of both the publisher and dev team going under

 

[AkiraSO4]

Well they delisted the original KOF XIII on Steam in favor of a very poor job at adding rollback to it.
Street Fighter x Tekken hasn't been available on Steam for at least three years now.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection was delisted at least ten years ago due to GFWL stuff, which is somewhat understandable.
Now Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition being delisted on Steam since 2020 is some straight up bullshit.

 

[tenkai star]

Everyone knows this one, but it deserves a mention. The PT hype was so much fun, wish it was still available

 

[doubledaredean]

dare i say facebook games? pet society, ninja saga, monster galaxy, the sims social... i was needless to say, devastated when they were shutting down

 

[LiberoVulpes]

Most of what Thinking Tools made is lost media, due to the devs burning the Master Copies, i covered that story in an article. #ShamelessPlug

A Studio With No Legacy - The Comprehensive Tragedy of Thinking Tools

You have no idea how difficult it was to even find the logo. Previously, I covered the history of Maxis, a quite renown Studio that most people can recognize. Now, I am going to do the opposite, a very obscure Studio most people don’t even know existed at all. How obscure you might ask? Well...

retrogametalk.com

 

[LaserMoose]

Well they delisted the original KOF XIII on Steam in favor of a very poor job at adding rollback to it.
Street Fighter x Tekken hasn't been available on Steam for at least three years now.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection was delisted at least ten years ago due to GFWL stuff, which is somewhat understandable.
Now Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition being delisted on Steam since 2020 is some straight up bullshit.

MK's arcade games not being available on most modern systems is a shame. Mortal Kombat delisting a guest character would make sense to a degree, but removing MK9 Komplete Edition entirely from sale is a bad move, I agree.

At least Tekken 7 appears to have the foresight to have two editions now for sale, one with the guest characters ("Definitive Edition") and one without ("Originals Edition"), which likely means that they'd just delist the Definitive Edition from purchase over the next few years as their licenses for Negan, Geese and Noctis run out.

Most of what Thinking Tools made is lost media, due to the devs burning the Master Copies, i covered that story in an article. #ShamelessPlug

Very interesting read, and certainly matches the topic! I wasn't aware of how troubling it was for MBS after the release of SimCity!

 

[RageBurner]

Giving it a wide sweep, but you can consider any release that was digital only and/or locked to a specific platform.

Specific expansions/DLC that are platform locked, or franchises that are slowly phasing out their own legacy, like Monster Hunter.

As a classic MH enjoyer, I'll never forgive Capcom if 3U, 4U and GU don't get some sort of wide release.

 

[Cheela]

Castlevania The adventure rebirth is such a good classic vania for being limited for the wii ware :,3 i know that is not hard to *search in the high seas* in terms of recovering wii ware titles but still amaze me how little konami gave this game attention.

Also Shin Megami Tensei 1 ios port. Still the only official english version of the game and is sadly unavailable because of iOS updates. But hey! Atleast the gba port has been translated using the ios version as base.

 

[RageBurner]

Castlevania The adventure rebirth is such a good classic vania for being limited for the wii ware :,3 i know that is not hard to *search in the high seas* in terms of recovering wii ware titles but still amaze me how little konami gave this game attention.

Also Shin Megami Tensei 1 ios port. Still the only official english version of the game and is sadly unavailable because of iOS updates. But hey! Atleast the gba port has been translated using the ios version as base.

@Cheela! so nice to hear from you.

 

[Cheela]

Giving it a wide sweep, but you can consider any release that was digital only and/or locked to a specific platform. Specific expansions/DLC that are platform locked, or franchises that are slowly phasing out their own legacy (like Monster Hunter.

As a classic MH enjoyer, I'll never forgive Capcom if 3U, 4U and GU don't get some sort of wide release).

Also shotout to Dynamic Hunting for mobiles and the Freedom Unite ios port! For being one of Capcom best selling franchises Monster Hunter have a lot of lost media :(

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 6:48 AM

@Cheela! so nice to hear from you.

busy week but i am back :3

 

[RageBurner]

Also shotout to Dynamic Hunting for mobiles and the Freedom Unite ios port! For being one of Capcom best selling franchises Monster Hunter have a lot of lost media :(

You're right! and the fact it is one of Capcom's "big three" currently makes it even more egregious.

 

[LaserMoose]

Giving it a wide sweep, but you can consider any release that was digital only and/or locked to a specific platform.

Specific expansions/DLC that are platform locked, or franchises that are slowly phasing out their own legacy, like Monster Hunter.

As a classic MH enjoyer, I'll never forgive Capcom if 3U, 4U and GU don't get some sort of wide release.

Funny you mention this, as I'm still making my way through Rise, which was how I found Ixion Saga in the first place. Looking at the game made me think, "this looks like if Monster Hunter was an MMO PvP game!"

Then reading about how it never left Japan and Capcom let it get sunset over the course of two years, I thought it made for a fun thread about lost media!

 

[RageBurner]

Funny you mention this, as I'm still making my way through Rise, which was how I found Ixion Saga in the first place. Looking at the game made me think, "this looks like if Monster Hunter was an MMO PvP game!"

Then reading about how it never left Japan and Capcom let it get sunset over the course of two years, I thought it made for a fun thread about lost media!

People still run MH Frontier private servers I believe. It's still very much a beloved game, though I never tried it.