A new year always brings new things, and to start 2017 off, Valve has removed Codemasters F1 2013, Dirt 3 and Grid from its digital distribution service, Steam.
I first spotted the news from Team VVV’s site where Kevin Dooley posted the unfortunate removal of the three Codemasters titles. After a little more searching it appears that Reddit user “slayersc23” had possibly shed the light on the removal of these games.
Bouncing around a little more shows that PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk noted on the 31st that Grid was to be removed from GOG.com citing a post from the site itself. Andy received an email from GOG in regards to Grids removal noting expiring licenses were the cause.
I think we can draw the same conclusion for the reason of removal for F1 2013, 2011s Dirt 3 and 2008s Grid from Steam. At this moment, digital gaming has arguably never been better, but there is a downside to keeping games alive on a digital platform. Anyone remember Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?
In a 2014 digital update to that game, 17 songs were removed from the title for expiring licenses.
It’s an unfortunate side effect in sim racing as well. With developers trying to be as authentic as possible to draw an audience, a license usually has an expiration date of some sort and either that has to be renewed, or the license and rights are lost. These titles are not the only ones in the racing genre to have licenses expire. GTR 2 had some of the best driving and racing experiences in the last 15 years (it still does), but it’s release on Steam saw the removal of Ferrari and Porsche because of an expired licensing deal. By the way, those two manufactures still aren’t back in the title.
As both sites have stated, if you own the titles before the removal, you’re fine. You still should be able to play and re-download with no issue. Anyone looking to purchase these Codemasters titles may be out of luck, indefinitely.
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