Your Digital Game Library Is Yours, Until It's Not

The move underscores that storefront purchases on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox are revocable licenses rather than ownership, and that server-dependent single-player content can vanish when a publisher pulls the plug. Delisting preserves access for existing owners but blocks new buyers, while a full license revocation—as with Ubisoft's always-online racer The Crew, whose servers closed in March 2024—can erase a game from libraries entirely. The episode matters as discs fade as a fallback and publishers increasingly tie single-player modes to live infrastructure. Watch whether regulators and consumer groups push for clearer license disclosures or offline-mode guarantees, and whether other publishers follow 2K in sunsetting server-dependent content on fixed timetables.