Pandemic Digital Board Game Is Being Delisted From Multiple Stores For Unknown Reasons

The digital board game version of Pandemic has disappeared from Steam after it was quietly delisted on January 6. And it will be removed from other digital storefronts throughout the year and its publisher, Asmodee, hasn’t explained why beyond a vague statement that the game is being removed for a “multitude of reasons that [it] cannot disclose.”

As spotted by PC Gamer, Pandemic was removed from Steam on January 6 with no warning or heads up. On Steam the game’s store page says it was removed “At the request of the publisher.” It also appears to be removed from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. If you already bought the game you can still install and play it on Steam and mobile, but Pandemic can no longer be bought by new customers.

A Reddit user emailed publisher Asmodee about the game being removed and received a message reportedly confirming that it was indeed ripped from Steam and that it was going to be removed from other platforms too.

“First of all, we want to thank you and all the Pandemic players for your loyalty and support over time. Unfortunately, we are taking the Pandemic app off the stores. 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.

For now, only PC, App Store & Google Play has been removed. Microsoft version will follow Jan 31th 2022 and then Nintendo Switch by the end of July 2022.”

Kotaku has reached out to Asmodee about Pandemic and why it was delisted from Steam and mobile stores.

Checking the company’s website, it appears that all mention of Pandemic has been removed from it. As pointed out by PC Gamer, using the Wayback Machine you can see that around December of last year is when the game was scrubbed from the publisher’s site.

There is one version that appears, at least for now, to be safe from being delisted. Over on Board Game Arena, a site owned by Asmodee, you can still play the digital version of Pandemic for free with other players. But it’s possible this version will also be delisted at some point in the near future for “reasons.”