As successful as some of Capcom’s recent blockbusters might’ve been, the same cannot be said about all of its titles. Notably, three legacy Capcom titles – Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock! – will be taken off sale on Steam, though no reasoning has been provided as to why.
Now, nobody is saying that Dark Void is a must-play classic from the late aughts, but it’s still sad to see it go the way of the dodo. Notably, Capcom has announced on each of the three games’ respective Steam pages that it will be “discontinuing digital sales” of these titles on May 8, 17:30 PDT. “Customers who have purchased the title prior to its delisting date may still be able to enjoy the game into the future depending on their PC operating system’s ability to continue running the game,” clarifies the note.
Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock are being taken off Steam
As is usually the case with games that get taken off sale on Steam, those who already own any of the three aforementioned titles will still be able to play them in the future. If you see yourself doing so, all three are currently at a fairly steep sale, with Dark Void being the most expensive of the three at a mere $4.99. Arguably, Dark Void Zero is the most interesting of the three games, as it’s a genuinely solid demake of the main game that successfully side-steps some of its biggest faults (i.e. how bog-standard and uninteresting of an experience it is).
Of course, the problem isn’t necessarily in the fact that we’re losing the ability to purchase three niche games from almost 15 years ago. Instead, it’s the matter of game preservation that is increasingly being nudged into the limelight as of late. Permanently losing access to any game is a matter of some concern in my book, and while it’s a good thing that companies such as Xbox are seemingly trying to come up with a way to battle this problem, we’re bound to lose more and more games until a comprehensive solution is provided.
The loss of Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock! isn’t the crux of the issue: it’s the symptom of a bigger problem that simply needs to be tackled as soon as possible. Accursed Farms, for one, has recently mounted a campaign to stop games from being destroyed, which is bringing more attention to the problem at the very least. Obviously, it doesn’t seem like anything can be done about these three Capcom games at this time.
On the flip side, Capcom is (once again) gauging interest in its long-lost Dino Crisis franchise. Maybe something happens on that front in the near or far future, at the very least, but in the interim, random game de-listings are all we get.
