• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Spec Ops to be delisted entirely from all online gaming stores

Draugoth

Gold Member
NEW: Spec Ops to be delisted entirely from online gaming stores (not just Steam) A 2K rep tells me: "Spec Ops: The Line will no longer be available on online storefronts, as several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring." 1/2​



 
Last edited:

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?

Portman

Member
Making a post to say thanks for pointing it out and to keep the thread up there if anyone wants to grab it from GOG before it goes away. I'd seen it mentioned elsewhere that GOG has a clause where they have to be notified before delisting and I wonder if that's what we're seeing with the sale and the expiration on the sale price? Snagged a spare from there since I haven't played it since release on Steam.

This brings to mind the blight of licensing on game though if it is due to the music in the game. We see this enough with games it almost makes you want to question why they license stuff if the sales will potentially be stopped. But then I tell myself if it is 5-10 years later the suits might not care by then and I guess we've had the chance to buy it? At the same time the new digital hellscape we're in once they're gone they're gone. And now I've mad myself sad about the games we've lost to crap like this.
 

bender

What time is it?
WHELP ....


L02Mpt6NgO9gZT09yAQWYh_HMjnYZlL57VaJ9pD6tZRKu0hPZGMMYLkS_ZiiXtwVG6H0-_Fndqz6Fhe2S07yWy1B2h8mjdUbCEWePJRHhuA
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
I already had this on Steam, but delistings enrage me and I wish platform holders were more aggressive about preventing them somehow. Perhaps through contracting, and only allowing the game to be sold in the first place if the underlying licenses aren't time-limited. (This would require coordination among platform holders, but still.)
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
The industry really needs to get its shit together in regards to this kind of licensing. It seems like this is the #1 issue resulting in delistings. If publishers and platform owners want consumers to be confident in purchasing digital content, they will need to address these problems.
Delisting doesn't stop costumers who already purchased the game from downloading it.
 
Last edited:

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Licensing on gaming needs to be adjusted. Pitiful to lose games for licensing issues.
The music industry is mercenary with licensing. Plenty of old TV shows arent available because they never negotiated music rights for alternate platforms in the past and they hold them hostage.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Bought it from GOG. I've heard good things about the game, so I figured it's worth $6 to make sure I have the chance to play it whenever I get around to it.

Good luck ever seeing this for sale again.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Funny thing I just checked the wiki page. It says it has lots of MP modes. Going by message board posts I thought it was strictly a SP shooter. Never knew there were MP modes.
 

bender

What time is it?
Funny thing I just checked the wiki page. It says it has lots of MP modes. Going by message board posts I thought it was strictly a SP shooter. Never knew there were MP modes.

Co-Op too but not campaign co-op. It's a game that went through a lot of iterations and you can certainly feel that. One of the initial selling points was dynamic environments (sand) and being able to use that to your advantage in combat situations. In the final game those opportunities might come up three or four times.
 

FeralEcho

Member
They should announce these fucking things in advance not shadow drop the delist...Cowards!

I'm lucky in that I already bought it on Xbox last year but other people who didn't get that chance will lose the oportunity forever.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
All games reliant on licensed whatever should really have some kind contingency plan so that things like music can be swapped out to royalty free / original tracks, and things like car models have their badges and names changed.

Music licensing issues like this don’t seem to really take down tv shows and movies. Like martin scorsese puts a song in his movie for art and it stays there. Video game publishers just don’t give a shit about licensing issues delisting games down the road.

Rockstar was constantly taking a hatchet to the carefully crafted soundtracks of the older GTA games instead of paying to keep the original experience and vision. It sucks.
 

Three

Gold Member
Yeah no kidding. My 9 year old steam copy is now useless knowing that other people can't purchase it. I can install and play it, but it would hurt too much. Thankfully there are infinite physical copies and they legally have to be stocked at all major retailers.
You're missing the point though. Imagine you didn't own it. Imagine there was no physical release on future games and a game gets delisted everywhere, what are you going to do? beg someone who bought it for their username and password? At least when a physical version exists you can still buy the game from somewhere.

 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
You're missing the point though. Imagine you didn't own it. Imagine there was no physical release on future games and a game gets delisted everywhere, what are you going to do? beg someone who bought it for their username and password? At least when a physical version exists you can still buy the game from somewhere.
The thing about physical vs digital really comes down to each products viability (business wise).

A lot of gamers might not like digital only, but if gamers look at the big picture digital is the medium allowing shit loads of games to still be sold. Heck, I bought Cinemaware Anthology on Steam a few years ago. And lucky for me there's actually a digital download for it. And even better it's the Amiga versions! The last time these games were on disk was probably around 1992 on 3.5 discs.

Some things might not get a digital release and some get taken down. But if it wasnt for digital , any gamer would be hard pressed to buy oldies since most games go out of print (esp a 12 year old game like Spec Ops). The best alternatives would be buying a used copy hoping it works or some guy on eBay selling a sealed copy for double the price. The amount of sales old 360/PS3/PC Spec Ops copies sold if all were still available on a disc would be almost zero. But at least it's still available digitally (until now).

So its one of those things, you take the good with the bad.
 
Last edited:

Soodanim

Member
I won't be going as far as to buy a GOG copy to go with my Steam copy as I very much doubt I will want to replay this, but it was a good experience that first time through and worth playing if you haven't already.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
All games reliant on licensed whatever should really have some kind contingency plan so that things like music can be swapped out to royalty free / original tracks, and things like car models have their badges and names changed.

Yeah, especially with Outrun. I don’t give a shit if it’s a Ferrari. Just make it sporty no car that’s similar looking.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I won't be going as far as to buy a GOG copy to go with my Steam copy as I very much doubt I will want to replay this, but it was a good experience that first time through and worth playing if you haven't already.

That’s where I’m at. I’ve got it on Steam. Don’t see the need to drop $6 on a GoG copy.
 
Top Bottom