10 Popular Video Games You Can't Play Anymore
Blur was too beautiful for this world.
While there’s plenty to celebrate about in the world of video games in 2024, unfortunately not every game receives remasters, remakes, or updates to ensure it survives the ever changing industry as it trundles through decades and generations.
Of course, it’s more than understandable that most studios have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to supporting a game, especially when that game requires server support, constant updates, or an extraordinarily dated system in order to be played. Perhaps the strongest argument for physical media even with the decline of brick and mortar game retail is that no matter what happens you still own your games.
Which is why I’m still hanging on to every boxed game I ever bought even though most of them need an agonising amount of patches and workarounds to get running.
The games on this list, though, weren’t so lucky. If you did play them while they were available or happen to have them on your shelf or hard drive, consider yourself lucky as in most of these cases you’re almost never likely to be able to again. While there are not so legal means to obtain some of these games we’re not going to encourage that but you know, I’m not your mum, you do you. In any case, we’re going to leave that avenue out.
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10. Friday The 13th: The Game
2017 asymmetrical survival horror Friday the 13th: The Game established itself as a cult favourite even with its limited maps, bugs, and jankiness.
Many were willing to forgive the game given its beloved IP, the joy of its asymmetrical horror format that capitalised very effectively on the classic trope of big bad villain versus camp counsellors, and the built in replayability of trying to outsmart or massacre all your friends depending on your character.
Unfortunately if you’re going to make a game featuring the one and only Jason Vorhees you better make sure you have your IP licensing ducks in a very solid row which publisher Gun Media absolutely did not.
In what came as an especially brutal announcement for the 30,000 plus Kickstarter backers who funded the game, just one year after its release Gun Media cancelled all of Friday’s future DLC and content updates due to a rights and ownership dispute between the movie’s screenwriter Victor Miller and its director Sean S. Cunningham. The film lawsuit threw an immovable wrench in the works for the video game that made it impossible for them to move forward and although it received a new development partner in September of 2018 after the lawsuit was put to bed, it was already the beginning of the end. A Switch version of the game called Friday the 13th: Ultimate Slasher Switch Edition, yes that is the full official title, did arrive in August of 2019 but a year later Gun Media revealed they weren’t making any money off the game. As a result, servers were switched to only peer-to-peer and the game was delisted in December of 2023 due to the licence expiring.
Technically if you own it you can still play it but the servers are due to be turned off at the end of 2024. In a nice last minute move, Gun Media, now Gun Interactive bumped all existing players to the level cap, and unlocked all of the kills, legendary perks and challenge skulls, so that’s something.