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Regardless of the reason behind the takedowns, it's always a sad day when a video game gets delisted from a digital retailer. And soon, two — including the predecessor to one of Xbox's biggest new first-party 2025 titles — are being removed from a popular PC gaming storefront.
The store they're being delisted from, meanwhile, is GOG, a game distribution platform on PC created by CD PROJEKT (best known for publishing The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077). GOG is a popular alternative to the Epic Games Store and Steam, especially with users applauding its lack of digital rights management (DRM) hooks.
Indeed, the GOG versions of games don't require a constant online connection (unless they're online games, of course) or an authentication of your purchased license to play. Because of this, they're considered to be incredibly valuable for game preservation and ensuring that we can play our beloved titles long after their servers and backend services shut down.
It's all the more unfortunate, then, that Ancestors and The Outer Worlds are leaving the GOG store soon. A team member at the retailer, king_kunat, announced the news on the GOG forums on Monday, confirming that both games will be delisted from the platform on December 15.
"Hey folks, I need to bring some unfortunate news: Both The Outer Worlds and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey will be removed from the store on December 15th (I don't have an exact hour yet)," they wrote. "We've secured a discount for Ancestors, but couldn't do so for The Outer Worlds. This also includes all editions & add-ons for both games."
"As always, we'll try to bring them back," king_kunat added. It was later confirmed that the 2023 Spacer's Choice Edition of The Outer Worlds (that remasters its visuals and includes all of its DLC) will be delisted at the same time, as will the standalone versions of the expansions available.
The good news? Both Ancestors and The Outer Worlds will remain purchasable and accessible on Steam and Epic, and also on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, too. With The Outer Worlds specifically, fans can also play on the Xbox PC app and with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
But even so, losing a DRM-free version of these games is tragic, and we don't even know why these delistings are coming. However, given that both games were published by Private Division, I assume it has something to do with Take-Two selling it to Haveli Investments last year and some sort of mix-up with its publishing rights as a result. Windows Central has reached out to Microsoft and Xbox — the current owner of Obsidian and The Outer Worlds franchise — to try and learn more.
I hope the GOG team is able to get both games back on the store at some point, but in the event that they can't, and that you want one or both of these titles without DRM? Make sure you buy them on the platform before December 15. The $39.99 Ancestors is discounted down to $7.99 on GOG, though sadly, The Outer Worlds is still at its normal $29.99 price, and the Spacer's Choice Edition is at its $59.99 MSRP as well.
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