10 Video Games That Were Pulled From Digital Store Shelves (And Why)

5. Deadpool

Deadpool Game Wolverine
Activision

Despite its rather underwhelming gameplay, 2013's Deadpool is a really fun ride that completely nails the humour of the character, so it's actually quite unfortunate that a lot of players will no longer get to experience it.

Developed by High Moon Studios, the game originally launched on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 in June 2013, and amazingly, it didn't even last a full year before being wiped from the digital archives entirely. In January 2014, reports began to emerge that the game was disappearing from places like Steam and Xbox Live, with an expired licensing deal between Marvel and publisher Activision spelling doom for the merc with a mouth.

The game then made a temporary comeback in 2015, returning to Steam with very little fanfare from its publisher or developer. There was also a PS4/Xbox One remaster around this time, and it's possible that all of this attention on the game was to promote the then-upcoming 2016 movie, starring Ryan Reynolds in the title role.

Finally, the game was removed from digital storefronts - again - in 2017, this time for good. It's an unfortunate situation, and Deadpool aside, lots of other Marvel-branded Activision games have suffered from licensing/delisting issues over the course of the 2010s, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!