3 Video Games You’ll Never Get to Play Again

Some video games are timeless, so it becomes one of the saddest aspects of the video game industry when these are no longer available to play. There have been numerous times when video games have been canceled before release, but on a few rare occasions, games are left unplayable after they have already launched and simply vanish. The circumstances surrounding these events vary, but the bottom line remains: these experiences are impossible to revisit and are a sombering reminder that games do not guarantee permanence.

The most frustrating part about these games’ disappearances isn’t always fan demand. Even popular games can be shut down due to forces outside of players’ control. Legal red tape, expired rights, or publishers unwilling to invest in preservation can lead to games being taken away from players, and these three games represent this fact.

3) Concord

Concord may be one of the most troubled games in industry history, something Bungie appears to be trying to compete with in Marathon. It had a promising start with a charming and exciting cinematic reveal trailer, but this excitement soon soured when it was revealed that the gameplay would be a hero shooter rather than a narrative-driven one. Further criticism of the characters and $40 entry fee also hurt the game.

While Concord would ultimately launch, these factors led to the game being swiftly shut down. Servers were pulled, players were issued returns, and the game was promptly removed from all storefronts. What was supposed to be a long-term investment for Sony and one of its many live-service projects proved to be a fairly disastrous one, and it unraveled almost immediately.

What makes this strange is that Sony didn’t even try to fix it. An easy solution for Concord could have been to make the game free to play. This could have brought in players who were skeptical about trying the game, because the gameplay was actually very good. Instead, Sony abandoned Firewalk Studio and simply made the title disappear, leaving even those with physical Concord copies unable to play it.

2) Friday the 13th: The Game

Friday the 13th: The Game developed a cult following and proved to be an exciting asymmetrical horror experience. It may never have gained the popularity that Dead by Daylight did, but it saw regular players and had a good following. This made its shutdown all the more shocking, especially considering the love fans had for the source material. But it would be the source material that paved the way for the game’s disappearance.

Legal disputes over Friday the 13th were the cause behind the game being removed from storefronts and its servers being shut down. The main online mode has been removed as a result, though the offline mode is still available. This loss is particularly sad because the fan base did nothing wrong. The dispute over the IP (the Victor Miller lawsuit) led to the closure of one of the few licensed games that was good.

Who knows what the future could have held for Friday the 13th: The Game. Developer IllFonic had a vision for the title, but this dispute paused all that. Players weren’t even issued refunds like those who purchased Concord were. Instead, Friday the 13th: The Game sits in their libraries, all but dead.

1) P.T.

The most disappointing example of this trend has to be P.T. It’s actually painful how mishandled this short playable teaser was. Despite not being a full game, it has become one of the most celebrated and terrifying horror experiences in gaming. Its cryptic release on the PlayStation Store only added to this. What fans thought was a simple demo of a single hallway turned out to be a surreal and creepy experience.

But just as suddenly as it had appeared, P.T. was gone. Fallout between the publisher and developer, Konami and Hideo Kojima’s 7780s Studio, led to the game not only being canceled, but the teaser being pulled from PlayStation. It marked the end of what could have been one of the greatest horror games ever made, and left fans desperate for more.

The impact P.T. had on players can still be seen today. After the game was shut down and removed from the PlayStation Store, the only way to play it was on a console that already had the game installed. This led to fans selling and purchasing these consoles for ridiculous amounts of money overnight. P.T. showed the power of gaming, but it also showed how fleeting it can be.

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