DELISTED: My attempt to keep some lost games alive

You know what’s a sad reality of modern gaming? Delisting. It seems naive now but I always felt that digital releases and downloadable games would make for a permanent history of gaming. Thanks to licensing deals and publisher liquidation, though, our games can disappear faster than any disc can die from bit rot.

I’ve been thinking about it for a year now and with more games dropping off their e-Mortal coils I decided to finally get this thing started. DELISTED is the name and I’m aiming to capture what I can of these no-longer-available titles in their original form. No cracking, no downloading ISOs (or whatever the digital equivalent is), no commentary.

This means a lot of Xbox 360 footage because I’ve already downloaded most trial games there and their web interface makes scouring my history painless. In each video I show the gameplay, options, Achievements and credits. I’ve also tried to identify why the game was delisted but in some cases it’s a behind-the-scenes mystery. Oh, and for posterity’s sake there’s no commentary from me; this is serious archival business.

The playlist is already growing with two new uploads coming each week in vaguely chronological order. And if this series get you all nostalgic for games long gone maybe you can dig them back up for yourself. I’ve posted two handy videos to show you how to get your own delisted games back on PlayStation Network and Xbox 360.

There’s loads of videos ahead for the series and, sadly, more to come as games continue to get delisted. They may be gone but I’m doing my best to make sure they aren’t lost.