Activision has pulled both Marvel Ultimate Alliance games off digital stores. The move comes likely due to licensing issues and is not the first time the publisher took games with Marvel licenses from stores. A resourceful user at gaming forum Resetera suspected the upcoming delisting earlier this week when both games went on sale on popular PC digital distribution service Steam.
Any other time they’d be on sale, I’d probably wouldn’t do this, but given the deep discount both games are getting (€14.99 if you buy them as a bundle), plus the timing of the sale (almost 2 years to the day the games released on Steam) leads me to believe that Activision’s licence for the games are set to expire very soon. So if you had any nigglings for getting the two, act on it now, because I don’t really see them being brought back anytime soon. – Nerdkiller on Resetera
Indeed, games dealing with licenses of other entertainment IPs do regularly fall prey to delisting. 2013’s Deadpool video game had to be similarly removed from all digital storefronts when in 2014 Activision’s license to produce and publish games containing intellectual property from Marvel expired. Deadpool did receive a re-release in 2015 on modern consoles however, likely as an easy business decision by Marvel to profit from the media attention the first Deadpool movie was getting. It didn’t take long for Deadpool to become delisted again though in 2017.
A similar fate to the Deadpool videogame
It remains to be seen if the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games will see a resurection ala Deadpool in the future, but there is a chance. Worst case, physical copies will remain for purchase and for PC users at least, a bundle of both games is still being sold digitally on Humble Bundle, albeit at a hefty full price tag.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2 originally in 2006 and 2009 respectively, and received a re-release for current-gen consoles and PC in 2016. The action role-playing games became one of the better games containing iconic comic book characters from the Marvel universe, despite having a rough launch due to technical issues. Being a spiritual successor to the X-Men Legends series of action-RPGs, the Ultimate Alliance games expanded the scope beyond the mutant superheroes (and villains) and featured a massive roster of characters, well in excess of 100.
So, if you happen to have a physical copy of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, make sure to cherish it.
