Didn't know about this. I hate the thought of not being able to buy or download something that was available. PT was one I can think of. Another, and actually more relevant, was GTI Club for PS3 - Good party games, but because of real world cars was delisted.
Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy was delisted just a few years ago. It was released on disc though so you can still find it, though the prices aren't always great.
More recently is the super mario anniversary 3d collection, that was only out for a year. Delisting of games should never happen but hey if you own it its your forever just download it now if you have the digital copy.
Mvsc2 was the worst for me cause I wasn't able to download it before it was pulled so one of my favorite fighters is gone forever.
The weirdest component to me is that this is happening before 8 comes out. You'd think they'd stagger them in such a way that there would always be at least one game in the series (I'm counting the Horizon games separately) that they could sell.
Well, its not that weird that the typical release schedule would get broken with the move to next gen (and covid), so I guess they either didnt expect to be delayed that much or the length of the contract for just 1 particular game wasnt worth going over possible legal/monetary changes (asumming that eventually they get back to the usual schedule for future games)
It's kind of ridiculous, but at least they have a valid reason to stop selling it with all the licensing stuff. It's better than artificially limiting it's release and then stopping its sale to create artificial demand, ala Nintendo with their Mario 3D All Stars shenanigans. Besides, its not like the already made disc copies are going anywhere. If anything, those just became more valuable.
Because licenses expire and they don't want to spend a fortune to renew it. GTAV has to remove music from its updated online version for the exact same reason.
They do, but it's not perpetual ownership. There's a lot of licenses in these games. All the cars, over 700, tracks, music, etc is all licensed for a certain amount of time. It's just the nature of the business now. They cannot continue to sell it without signing new agreements.
It sucks, but would anyone play Forza without the licenses?! Plus, I'm sure they're working on the licences for the eventual Forza 8. There are a number of factors at play here. The easy solution is to buy a copy.
All racing games with this many licenses will be like this in the future. It's not an exclusive issue to Forza. I'm sure they could extend them but why would they if the games not selling new copies on a regular basis?!
You can purchase a Foza Motorsport on launch day for 60 dollars/ultimate edtion for 100.. or you can just wait 3 or 4 years to buy a Forza Motorsport and all DLC for 20 dollars from here on out. Because every Forza Motorsport guaranteed delists in 3-4years-Every Forza Motorsport goes on a end of life sale 4 years after release for 10-20 dollars
I mean, most games if you wait 3-4 years you can get them for $10-20 even without license issues (unless its a Nintendo game, then its $40 if you are lucky with a sale haha)
@onilink, while you're technically not wrong, there's a special circumstance with these yearly type of release games. To buy Madden, or 2k, or Forza, at full price is legitimately silly when last year's edition is going for $15. (Madden 19 is on sale right now on psn for 0.99 as we speak.) These games depreciate so fast that there's really no good justification for buying them early (aside from simply having enough money that you straight up don't care that you're getting ripped off)
Stop looking thru such a narrow lens dude. The games wouldnt even get made if everyone waited until they were dirt cheap. Are you one of those that thinks the industry should revolve around your cheap-ass?! It may be silly to you, but there are millions of gamers that buy them every year at full price. If they didnt, companie like EA wouldnt have the money to take chances on other games that dont sell millions of copies. Your sad logic would kill the industry in a hurry. I am thankful there are people that shell out the money on day 1. The faster a game sells, the faster it goes on ale so I can get it at the price I feel comfortable with.
Well, some people like to play them on day 1. Stupid as it may seem to you and I, there are millions of people out there willing to do so! The market is dependent on those suckers and its like that in pretty much every industry. Look at cell phones for example. People go and spend $1000 + on the new iPhone or Galaxy when they can get last years model for for half the price or lower.
I dont judge anyone elses buying habits though. Yes I think its ridiculous, but some people are impatient and dont want to wait AND the market would crumble real fast if people didnt buy them at full price. If you can wait, then cool. But some people buy only those games and play them throughout the year. Dont hate, appreciate that they bought it so you could get it cheaper down the line and the next verison actually gets made. It wouldnt get made if everyone just waited until it was $1.
This is the normal life cycle (at least for Forza Motorsport/ Horizon). All the past Forza games have gone thru this, i.e. Forza Horizon 2, 3. Why all the fuss now? I guess GT & Drive Club is going thru the same licenceing agreements, right?
Becuase haters are looking at any and all chances to find a reason to bag on MS. Its always a sign of how good theyre actually doing when the fanboys of the other guy come out the wood work to bash the other. They should be actually playing the games they care about not complaining about the ones they never played or intended to!
GT PSP stuck it out digitally until the PSP store was shut down completely at least in the US. 800 cars several licensed race tracks all in one game on that system was still online until the PSP store was closed. Apparently in AU and EU the game was delisted early in 2020, but it launched in Sep 30 2009.
It really is the only example of these games sticking around in the digital era even though it was also ultimately taken down by consequence of the PSP store services being terminated. GTPSP didn't have an online mode so their excuses of delisting games to keep up with the times making online services for the current Gran Turismo sound more legitimate as PD never stated any previous delistings were due to licensing.
Driveclub was delisted apparently due to licensing and with the studio being closed everything else wrapped up with it.
Yes all of the games can still be purchased on a disc but I was specifically talking about online delistings and so far it seems SIE sees fit to re-up licensing for GT games if indeed that is what kept the PSP title available for 10 years.
Note how there are no official postings about termination of game downloads for the PSP version of the game? That's because in the US and JP the game and accompanying DLC was still purchasable until the PSP Store was closed.
It's reaching the point where I don't think I would mind if all serious racing games used unlicensed but recognizable car models similar to GTA V in order to avoid these licensing issues. If enough games did it they might relax their licensing terms.
Exactly, or just only include the cars (and songs) for which the licenses won’t expire. It’s ridiculous to see games disappear from the market because a Volkswagon or Volvo believes a 6 year old game is still selling just because it has their car in it.
Imagine certain classic movies not being sold any more because some of the songs used on the soundtracks had their license expired(!). Which I believe is what happened to Tour of Duty (TV series).
Offtopic: Tour of Duty, damn you're the first person I've ever heard mention that show since it went off the air. I'm pretty sure the same happened with China Beach with all the 60s music.
Nobody would play these SIMULATION games if they didnt have the official license That is one of the main selling points. You dont like it dont buy it! Or buy it on sale and stop complaining!
This is the nature of the business models now. Besides, how many new copies of Forza 7 were they selling on a monthly basis? And its not like the physical copies already produced are going away. The games wouldnt even get made if they had to pay perpetual licensing agreements. It would cost way too much to maintain them.
Nah MS needs to pony up the cash negotiate better contracts or use different music (the primary listed cause of each round of Forza delistings) because this is ridiculous and people should be calling it out. What happened to MS' goal of preserving games eh?
Sad people who are complaining about this should go try to play Drive Club on PS4. They dont even have operational servers for that game. At least you can still play this thing online well after it is delisted.
The devs host the servers which operate using PSN's protocols. Evolution Studios was closed and thusly PSN didn't host the services very long after that game dev was shuttered (despite demand it was easy to find matches up til the very end unlike KZ2 and WarHawk on PS3).
Same thing happened with every game whose development studio was closed on PlayStation's end. The games which had licensed content and online modes get removed sooner and online features shut down faster.
GT5 wasn't delisted until PS3 was released to my knowledge. GT6 launched in 2013 and 6 was delisted from the store at the end of the PS3's lifecycle in 2018 like GT5. GT Sport is still listed by this logic it should be delisted this year as it launched late in 2017... but GTPSP lived on the PSN store for nearly 10 years without issue despite having many licensed tracks and 800 licensed cars and some licensed music as well if memory serves.
So Sony was able to pony up the cash (despite allegedly being broke) why can't MS?
Every Forza game that's released digitally has a delisting 4 years after its release. Literally EVERY single one. Look at when each one came out versus when each one was delisted. Given the gap of years between games recently, I do wonder if Fourizon and Motorsport 8 will follow the same pattern. I err on the side of caution, though, and just assume they will.
"but the point is, I don’t want to be here next year lamenting the removal of Forza Horizon 4, because that’s the way this is going." -article quote
Didn't know about this. I hate the thought of not being able to buy or download something that was available. PT was one I can think of. Another, and actually more relevant, was GTI Club for PS3 - Good party games, but because of real world cars was delisted.
The weirdest component to me is that this is happening before 8 comes out. You'd think they'd stagger them in such a way that there would always be at least one game in the series (I'm counting the Horizon games separately) that they could sell.
It's kind of ridiculous, but at least they have a valid reason to stop selling it with all the licensing stuff. It's better than artificially limiting it's release and then stopping its sale to create artificial demand, ala Nintendo with their Mario 3D All Stars shenanigans. Besides, its not like the already made disc copies are going anywhere. If anything, those just became more valuable.