PS4 Exclusive Launch Game Will Cease to Exist This Month

A PS4 exclusive game, which was notably also a PS4 launch game, will cease to exist at the end of this month. The PS4 game in question has actually been delisted from the PlayStation Store and discontinued since 2024, however, it has remained playable. This is going to change on August 31, 2025 though, forever sunsetting the 12-year-old PS4 console exclusive.

In this case, PS4 console exclusive refers to the fact that the only console the game is available on is PS4. It is also available on PC, but this is obviously not a console. Not only did the PS4 launch game never come to Nintendo or Xbox plaforms, but it never came to PS5 either. As for the game in question it is Blacklight: Retribution, which actually debuted in 2012, one year before the PS4, but only on PC.

The free-to-play first-person shooter was originally made by Zombie Studios, who ran the game until 2015, which is when the Seattle-based studio closed down. After this, Hardsuit Labs took over the game, the studio perhaps best known for being pulled off the development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 after years of troubled development.

Upon release on the PC, Blacklight: Retribution garnered a solid 75 on Metacritic, but the PS4 version did not do as well only earning a 58 a year later. It never really caught on though, hence why the PC version was shut down in 2019, and then PS4 version discontinued in 2024. That said, it has remained playable on PS4, and has enough active players to support matchmaking. In other words, there will be some impacted by this new development.

“Hello Agents, on August 31st the backend services that Blacklight: Retribution depends on will be shutdown for the final time,” says the game’s developer. “Unfortunately, this is a necessary change as we have run out of options to support hosting of Blacklight’s backend services.”

Unfortunately, there is no way to download Blacklight: Retribution in 2025, so those who would like to play one final goodbye game this month have to have the game in their library already.

In the era of digital games, servers, and licensing, it is becoming increasingly common for games to be lost to time. Given the PS4 exclusivity involved here, and the fact it was a notable launch game, makes this one of the bigger examples of this growing trend in 2025.

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