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Evil Dead: The Game was delisted from stores in 2025, likely due to licensing issues and low player counts, but the servers remained online, allowing existing players to continue their gaming experience. Despite its removal from digital storefronts, the game's dedicated community could still access and enjoy the game.
The world of gaming survives on surprises, though not all of them are welcome. Evil Dead: The Game, a horror game based on cult-classic franchise Evil Dead, shocked gamers in 2025 by vanishing from digital platforms such as PlayStation, Steam, and Epic Games. Released in 2022, this multiplayer game allowed users to fight as Ash Williams or the evil Kandarian Demon, combining cooperative and competitive action.
Its abrupt deletion, only three years post-release, left gamers baffled and grieving a game that embodied the franchise's gruesome flair. Although servers remain available to owners, the delisting sparks questions as to why a hit title disappeared. This article explores the reasons for Evil Dead: The Game's delisting in light of licensing issues, player trends, and industry trends in straightforward, no-holds-barred language.
Evil Dead: The Game started disappearing from digital stores in April 2025, beginning with PlayStation and Epic Games Store, then Steam. Developer Saber Interactive confirmed the removal was intentional but provided no concrete reason. The game is still on Xbox as of writing, but probably not for much longer.
Existing players can continue to play their online modes since servers remain online for the time being. The delisting, occurring just short of the game's third anniversary, was unexpected, particularly as the title had received accolades for its loyal interpretation of the Evil Dead franchise.
One leading theory for the delisting is to attribute it to licensing issues. Evil Dead: The Game relies on Evil Dead intellectual property, held by complex rights holders to the films and shows. These kinds of licenses expire after a limited period, and once they lapse, often as little as three years, games get delisted from sale.
Other licensed games suffered similar disposal, such as Spec Ops: The Line in 2024 and Friday the 13th: The Game in 2023, both withdrawn because rights had expired. The relatively short time left on Evil Dead's license indicates that negotiations must have broken down or costs exceeded benefits, prompting Saber to cease sales.
Another contributing factor would have been a declining player base. Although selling 500,000 copies within a short period of its release in 2022, Evil Dead: The Game could not sustain a strong player base. By 2025, Steam's concurrent players were at about 30-40 per day, a significant difference from competitors such as Dead by Daylight.
Low interest deplete income through microtransactions or DLC, and it is more difficult to justify license renewals. The game was axed in September 2023 without new content or a scheduled Nintendo Switch release, marking its fall. A niche player base could have motivated Saber to charge off its losses instead of struggling for the license.
Delisting is just a symptom of a greater malaise in modern gaming: digital fragility. Unlike their physical-disc cousins, digital games can vanish at the whim of a publisher. Licensing disputes, poor sales, or business stratagem can make games cease to exist on the face of the earth, with no indication to future players.
Evil Dead: The Game's deletion is reflective of instances such as Activision's ancient Marvel and Transformers titles that no longer exist and are all but unobtainable. Even physical releases do not entirely rectify this, since the game needs an online connection, even in single-player situations. This exemplifies how ephemeral digital ownership is in contemporary gaming.
For owners of Evil Dead: The Game, there is hope. Saber Interactive is committed to maintaining servers, enabling co-op and PvP modes to keep going, along with single-player missions using bots. No new updates or content will be released, though, and server longevity is still in question.
Previous instances, such as Friday the 13th: The Game, had servers close down a year after being delisted, indicating players should enjoy Evil Dead while it lasts. Fans on sites like Reddit complain, hoping for an offline mode to keep the game in the long term, but there are no such plans.
The delisting of Evil Dead: The Game is a bittersweet page in the history of a game that captured the wild, gory essence of the franchise. Licensing problems and fading player interest most likely did, a repeat of the harsh realities of licensed titles.
While current owners can still battle Deadites, the game's unavailability on store shelves limits its legacy to those who were able to snatch it up early. This case emphasizes the need for better preservation in gaming, as digital games vanish too easily. Until then, Evil Dead: The Game is in the hands of its dedicated fans, a fleeting bite of horror gaming history.
