Did you ever buy the excellent mobile puzzler from Square Enix Montreal that still ranks among the top 150 puzzle games on the App Store despite being free to download? You will most likely be frustrated to hear that Embracer Group has decided you can't play it anymore.
Three weeks after shutting down the studio that produced it (which had incidentally just finished going through an expensive rebrand), Embracer has decided not only to remove their games from mobile app stores, but also to make them inaccessible even if you have already downloaded them.
Current players will not be able to access the games after January 4th, according to a post on the studio's website. In-game purchases that are made before January 4th will not be refunds.
When a game is removed from a digital marketplace, you can usually download a copy first, and then re-download it if you want. Even though Mass Effect 2 and Indigo Prophecy were removed from the Steam store many years ago, I can still get my copy of the game.
Apparently that won't happen here. It's a games preservation tragedy according to Kotaku'sluke plunkett. It is already under scrutiny from the gaming community for taking a billion dollars from Saudi Arabia and for buying up franchises.
It is not known why this is happening. It shouldn't be a rights issue. The studio that developed the title was bought by Embracer. We don't know if it's because Embracer decided it wasn't interested in mobile games anymore or if it's because it's just a rumour.
A request for comment was not responded to by the Embracer Group.
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