Aliens: Colonial Marines’ is no longer gestating in the stomach of Steam.
The Sega-published game was delisted from Valve’s PC game-distribution service today (via GameSpot). This means you cannot buy the digital version through Steam — although, you can continue to play it as well as uninstall and redownload it if you already own the sci-fi shooter. Additionally, Sega’s 2010 Aliens vs. Predator shooter was also delisted.
We’ve reached out to Sega and Valve for an explanation, and we’ll update this story with their responses.
It is possible that the delisting is due to some kind of licensing issue that is affecting the PC release. But Aliens: Colonial Marines is still available to purchase digitally on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 online stores.
Sega has held onto the Alien license for years, but it has only recently returned the franchise to critical acclaim as a gaming property. Both Aliens: Colonial Marines and Aliens vs. Predator failed to win over any critics. Many consider Colonial Marines a disaster. It is possible that Sega is happy to let those games slip off of Steam unnoticed in favor of the more recent Alien game, Alien: Isolation, which many people adore.
Alien: Isolation is still available on Steam as well as other digital platforms.
This is not the first time that a set of licensed games were dropped from digital-distribution channels at the start of a new year. In early January 2014, several Activision-published Marvel games disappeared from Steam, Xbox Games Store, and PlayStation Network. These included Deadpool, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men Destiny, and X-Men: The Official Game. The publisher confirmed that this was due to the terms of its licensing agreement.