The issue of video games getting delisted from digital game marketplaces after years of availability is hardly new and surprising, but the latest batch of delistings comes from 2K, the company supporting an extremely wide variety of sports games from numerous niches. Specifically, it seems like almost all the legacyWWE 2Ktitles are now gone from Steam.
2K Sports, it’s worth pointing out, seems to have failed to announce its delisting of the olderWWE 2Ktitles. Instead, franchise fan and Reddit user Popstasia has noticed this event and took to social media to let people know what was going on. As of right now, only two officially licensedWWEgames remain on Steam, and players who may have wanted to purchase an older edition of the series are unable to do so.
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WWE fans who may have hoped tocompareWWE 2K22with the previous installmentsin the series can no longer make this happen, according to Popstasia’s findings. At this time, 2K Sports seems to have left justWWE 2K22andWWE 2K Battlegroundsfreely available for purchase after delisting every other formerly availableWWE 2Ktitle. Of course, players who had previously owned the delisted entries do still have access to them: it’s just currently impossible for new players to go out of their way to purchase them in any official capacity.
While it may seem strange that even the newer editions of the series, such asWWE 2K20, would get removed, this situation is not without precedent in the industry. Earlier this year,Bandai Namco gotFast and Furious: Crossroadsdelistedafter just a few months of widespread availability. Instead, the unprecedented part comes from the fact that 2K Sports issued no warning that this would happen whatsoever, which also means the company failed to explain why it was delisting said titles in the first place.
The reasoning, however, isn’t entirely impossible to deduce. It is very likely that 2K Sports' licensing deal for the previous games in the franchise ran out, and that there was no incentive for the publisher to renew them in any meaningful capacity. WithWWE 2K23coming out in the foreseeable future, the company is more likely to focus on its more recent endeavors, instead.
Licensing-related video game delistings can lead to some rather awkward situations for everyone involved. None of the entries in the widely acclaimedForza Motorsportseries, for example, is currently available for purchase in any way, shape, or form afterForza Motorsport 7got delisted in 2021. Instead, the fans are forced to wait for the next entry in the series, and something similar seems to be happening withWWE 2K, too.
