Several days ago, fans of GTA began to notice that the GTA IV Steam edition had been mysteriously delisted; although it was still on the platform, it was no longer available to purchase on the platform. Now, Rockstar has revealed exactly why that is, and why they can’t simply make the game available to buy again.
Why the GTA IV Steam Edition is No Longer Available
According to Rockstar, the blame for this incident should be directed at Microsoft, or more specifically, the company’s Games for Windows Live service. At the time that GTA IV launched on PC, it was created to run on the Games for Windows Live service, and this service was used to generate game keys. However, that service is now defunct, and according to Rockstar, who released a statement to USGamer, it is now; “no longer possible to generate the additional keys needed to continue selling the current version of the game.”
This means that the GTA IV delisting wasn’t down to a glitch or accident which might be easily rectified. The game is still unavailable for sale, and won’t necessarily return anytime soon. Rockstar went on to say that they were; “looking at other options for distributing GTA4 for PC,” but were not specific with regards what the details of those options are, or when a solution might see implementation. For now, the Episodes from Liberty City expansion is still available, but not the core game.
Games for Windows Live shut down back in 2014, after which many publishers took steps to migrate their games to Steamworks; Steam’s equivalent of Microsoft’s service. This migration included games like Dark Souls, for example, but did not include GTA IV. It’s unclear why it has taken this long for the game to become unavailable. However, it’s possible that the game had a huge stockpile of pre-generated keys which has finally run out. Whatever the case, Rockstar will reportedly; “share more information as soon as we can,” regarding the game.