In the ensuing fallout of Telltale Games shuttering, several of the developer’s titles have been delisted from Steam. Telltale Games delisted only a few of its titles from the platform including Tales of Monkey Island, Jurassic Park: The Game, and Back to the Future: The Game.
Twitter user Pixelbuster noticed the delisting earlier today. It may be related to distribution rights, as both Jurassic Park and Back to the Future are owned by Universal and the Monkey Island series is owned by Disney. All three titles released between 2009 and 2011, prior to Telltale Game’s The Walking Dead series that achieved acclaim. However, these games are all still available on other platforms, including PS3 and GOG.
The titles are still available to redownload for those who already owned the titles, but they are no longer for sale on Valve’s digital storefront. With the “majority studio closure” seeing over 200 employees laid off from Telltale Games, the timing of these delistings is concerning for some fans. As Telltale created games based on licensed properties, it is possible these titles and others from the developer may become unavailable to purchase as the contracts begin to expire.
Skybound Games, the video game arm of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment, picked up The Walking Dead: The Final Season to finish up that final season. Skybound did not broach the possibility of purchasing assets or rights to other games from the developer.
This wouldn’t be the first time that IP licenses have seen games pulled from digital stores. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game was available for a little over four years before being delisted in 2014. Tetris was delisted from the PS3 when EA lost its license to release Tetris games. The infamous P.T. was pulled by Konami after internal strife with the now external Hideo Kojima.
Telltale Games, and the respective rights holders, has not issued any information regarding its games being taken off Steam. We’ll be keeping an eye on other platforms and update this article with information as it comes in.
