Pandemic Eradicated from Steam

A post on Reddit reveals that Pandemic: The Board Game has been delisted on Steam, and is no longer available for purchase. This strategy game was released in 2018, so it was certainly not an effort to exploit COVID-19 at the time. It does seems possible the removal is still related to the coronavirus outbreak, but the notice on the Steam Listing is inscrutable: "At the request of the publisher, Pandemic: The Board Game is no longer available for sale on Steam." Those who already own it should still be able to play the game going forward. PC Gamer includes word on the one way to still get this:
Though no official announcement has been made, one player contacted Asmodee support and was told via email that, "We have worked hard over 4 years on Pandemic and withdrawing it from the stores has not been an easy choice. This decision was made with a heavy heart for a multitude of reasons that we cannot disclose." The email also claimed that Pandemic would be leaving the Xbox store on January 31, and Switch by the end of July.

Pandemic is no longer mentioned anywhere on Asmodee Digital's website. A look at the Wayback Machine shows that its page was removed in November or December of 2021. However, one digital version of Pandemic remains—on browser-based tabletop gaming platform Board Game Arena, which Asmodee bought last year. You can play Pandemic there for free right now, and with online multiplayer, something the Steam version didn't have.
View : : :
27.
 
Re: Pandemic Eradicated from Steam
Jan 17, 2022, 11:43
27.
Re: Pandemic Eradicated from Steam Jan 17, 2022, 11:43
Jan 17, 2022, 11:43
 
The digital version of Pandemic suffers a lot from the "foot in both camps" issue, where the mobile version is too unwieldy, the PC version is too simple, and neither is nice. I still had fun with it, and the achievements were good at pushing me to find synergies rather than just stick with my favourite characters.

If I had to speculate, I'd imagine that doing justice to the franchise - adding multiplayer, adding a first class UI, or providing better support for all of the emerging offshoots - just wasn't feasible using this code base.

It's weird that they pulled it for sale only six months after releasing new DLC though. Maybe it is a licensing issue.
Date
Subject
Author
1.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
2.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
3.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
8.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
9.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
10.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
11.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
12.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
14.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
26.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
13.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
4.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
5.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
18.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
20.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
21.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
22.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
30.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
23.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
25.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
6.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
7.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
16.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
17.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
24.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
29.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
19.
Jan 16, 2022Jan 16 2022
 27.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022
Re: Pandemic Eradicated from Steam
28.
Jan 17, 2022Jan 17 2022