Many Rockstar games suddenly evaporated from Steam, preparing to move to Epic?

Rockstar Games fans are quite worried.

One of Steam’s most successful publishers is Rockstar Games, with two hit games that any gamer in the world must play once in their life, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Both titles have appeared in the rankings of best-selling titles on Steam for months and even years after they were released. So imagine how shocking it would be to learn that on Monday afternoon, all of Rockstar’s titles, including Grand Theft Auto 5, were suddenly “evaporated” from the distribution platform. Steam rights without a reason.

Specifically, at some point last Monday, if gamers went to the page of GTA 5 and other Rockstar titles on the Steam platform, they would not see them exist and of course could not be purchased anymore. Then many Steam gamers began to worry that this could be a dispute between the two giants Steam and Rockstar, Rockstar is transferring exclusivity to the Epic Games Store or another platform.

A closer look at what’s happening reveals that dozens of Rockstar products on Steam have been “discontinued at the request of the publisher”. Rockstar’s entire library of games appears to have been affected, including the popular open-world series Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption, as well as other titles like LA Noire, Bully, Manhunt. However, only 15 minutes after that “evaporation”, Rockstar’s games suddenly returned to Steam but with a red exclamation mark “Unretired at publisher request – not approved by the publisher.”

Rockstar has yet to make an official comment on the matter, nor has it spoken out on social media. For now, this would probably be considered a Steam bug that shouldn’t be acknowledged. Since the titles are back on Steam and there’s no indication they’ll be removed again, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to worry about. That said, it’s likely that there’s some speculation in the Steam community that Rockstar is moving exclusivity to the Epic Games Store when the studio releases GTA 6 or something else. Whether it’s something real or fake, Valve or Rockstar must adjust the way games are purchased on the Steam platform, or the possibility of Rockstar eventually leaving the platform takes fans by surprise.

Regardless of what Valve or Rockstar may or may not have in connection with Monday’s event, things are getting back to normal for now. All Rockstar titles can now be purchased, and any Rockstar titles that gamers have purchased will still be playable on Steam.