Activision Marvel-branded games vanish from digital storefronts

Hope you weren’t thinking about downloading one of Activision’s Marvel Comics licensed games any time soon…

You might recall seeing that the latest title to be birthed from Activision and Marvel Comics’ licensing deal, 2013’s Deadpool, vanished from several online stores over the Holidays. Well, turns out that there’s a very simple reason for that and the recent spate of other disappearances of Marvel titles from the Activision- the licensing deal has expired and hasn’t been renewed.

Industry site MCV has picked up on a story originally appearing on GameInformer.com and confirms that Deadpool and all other Marvel titles are now officially ‘done’ shipping in new condition. That’s not to say that you can’t find new copies out there in the wild of course, as there are still plenty of them on shelves, but you won’t be seeing any of these games anymore (barring a new deal) for sale online.

Here’s the full list of what’s no longer available for download:

• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
• Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
• Spider-Man: Edge of Time
• X-Men: The Official Game
• X-Men Destiny
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine

There are a few clunkers on the list to be sure, but there are a few winners too. Both Shattered Dimensions and Wolverine are actually some of my favorite games based on comics, so I’m sorry to see the end of digital sales for these and a few more on the likes of Steam, Xbox Live and the PSN.

You know this actually points out one of the worst points of digital-only sales too as games can simply disappear when something like a licensing deal runs out. That’s obviously something that you won’t find in physical stores as places like GameStop will still very much be offering preowned editions and new copies of recent releases like Deadpool.

Good thing physical media’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.

Source: MCV