2K has delisted four games and their DLC from Steam without so much as a warning.
According to Steam-Tracker.com WWE 2K17,18,19, and 20 have all been removed from Steam along with all their DLC. If you owned the game before you still have access but if you wish to purchase the game now you will have to find it from a third-party seller.
Around the 13th of July, 2K withdrew these games and their DLC without providing any kind of notice, which is odd.
A Reddit user named Popstasia has brought this news to light when they tried to purchase one of the older games and realized it has been delisted among other games in the franchise. It turns out there are only two officially licensed WWE games left on Steam.
It is odd that some of the game’s more recent iterations, like WWE 2K20, have been taken off the market, but it appears that this trend is not new to the industry and is not unheard of, as Bandai Namco took Fast and Furious: Crossroads off the market after only a few months of being widely available.
Even though we weren’t given a reason It’s not altogether difficult to infer the reasoning. It’s quite possible that 2K Sports’ licensing agreement for the franchise’s earlier titles expired and that the publisher lacked any real motivation to renew it. WWE 2K23 is expected to be released soon, therefore the developer will likely concentrate on its more current projects instead.
The partnership between WWE and 2K in the future is another important factor to consider. The release date or even the possibility of WWE 2K23 has not yet been announced.
Especially in light of reports that WWE has discussed future game development with EA. The company is also developing a WWE RPG, though the specifics have not yet been made public.
Games being delisted on Steam because of expiring music licensing isn’t anything new, this gives us flashbacks of when Alan Wake and Alpha Protocol were removed without any prior warning.
Vince McMahon, the long-reigning head of WWE, has recently made headlines for other reasons as well, having announced his departure in the wake of many allegations of sexual assault.
On the heels of the critical and financial success of WWE 2K22, the developer plans to venture into new genres of video games. Given everything,
it’s possible that the WWE and its partners are more focused on other issues than reintroducing some out-of-date older titles to the digital marketplace.