Just seven years after its release Alan Wake has been removed from digital store fronts. For some this is rather shocking. I mean the whole point of buying games digitally is that they will always be available, but apparently always available is not the same thing as always for sale. It turns out Alan Wake’s awesome soundtrack is what did it in. It got to the point that renewing the licensing on the music made selling the game no longer profitable.
Of course Alan Wake is not alone in its demise. Racing games are always disappearing from store fronts because car companies ask a king’s ransom for their cars’ likenesses in games, and just like music, those licenses expire. We just notice less with racing game because there is always a newer and better one on the Horizon. With Alan Wake, there is not another one coming.
While all of this make sense, it is strange to think that in this modern era where storage is cheap that digital items will not always be for sale. Even more ponderous is that a song from 1963 is that main culprit. All of this to say, if you have been meaning to buy a game for a few years now, maybe you should pick it up when it is on sale because it may disappear forever. Though for a chilling game like Alan Wake, disappearing without a trace is a fitting end.
