Rockstar Games and Take-Two did not give an official explanation of why Grand Theft Auto IV, which launched in 2008 on PlayStation 3. Xbox 360, and PC, is no longer being sold on Valve‘s digital storefront.

Grand Theft Auto’s „disappearance” is common: in 2012, Grand Theft Auto Vice City has left the platform for a bit due to copyright claims (Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Startin’ Something was the song in question). And it’s not unusual: one of Grand Theft Auto’s trends is to have a beefy soundtrack, which is a double-edged sword because of licencing. If the licencing period ends, the affected songs are getting removed from the game (as there is no money spent on continuing the licencing deal). In 2018, Grand Theft Auto IV had some of its songs replaced on Vladivostok FM for this reason…

And you can’t even buy Grand Theft Auto IV at this point. Go on, look for yourself on Steam, you won’t see that green button to buy the game (or add it to your cart). We don’t know why this happened. If the removal is not due to music, then it could be because of DRM. Grand Theft Auto IV still uses Games For Windows Live (or GFWL for short). Microsoft has stopped using and supporting this service several years ago, and Valve might have run out of GFWL keys to support the game on its service. (And who knows, maybe the Steam version also has the SecuROM DRM, which is not supported by Windows 10.)

If we’re lucky, Rockstar is removing GFWL from Grand Theft Auto IV to make Niko Bellic’ story run easier. If we’re not, then Rockstar is simply plonking the game on its Rockstar Launcher to make it an exclusive title… but those who already have the game on their Steam account can immediately access it.

Source: PCGamer

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