Why Is Spec Ops: The Line Getting Delisted on PC Storefronts?

The 2012 military shooter Spec Ops: The Line has been delisted from several PC storefronts this week, including Steam and Fanatical. The move has raised questions from fans, so let’s break down why it’s happened.

The news initially broke via Wario64 on X (formerly Twitter) before spreading across the broader Internet. the game’s publisher 2K and developer Yager were both initially quiet on the subject, and that silence spurred the rumor mill into action.

In a period when most military-themed action games tended to focus on glory and valor — especially during World War II — Spec Ops: The Line was a modern shooter that effectively condemned the player for treating warfare as a game. It was critically but not commercially successful on release and has since become a cult success.

While I was writing this, Stephen Totilo reported via X that “several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring,” which has caused Spec Ops: The Line’s delisting. While it hasn’t been pulled down from every digital storefront yet, it reportedly will be in the near future.

This is a problem that’s come up with several seventh-generation console games over the years. Many of them included music, characters, or other media that belonged to another company, and those deals often weren’t written to last forever.

For example, this is why Alan Wake was briefly delisted from PC storefronts in 2017. Like Alan Wake 2, the original game used a lot of licensed music, including tracks from David Bowie, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Roy Orbison, and Depeche Mode. Microsoft, which published the original AW in 2010, only had a seven-year deal with those artists. It stepped in to renegotiate the deal on Remedy’s behalf, which led to Alan Wake going back on sale on Steam in late 2018.

In Spec Ops: The Line’s case, its soundtrack includes two songs by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, including “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” off 1968’s Electric Ladyland.

This fact is important due to a new ruling from London’s high court on January 29. A judge has ruled that the estates of the late Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, the bassist and drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, are clear to pursue a lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over the royalties to the Experience’s music catalog.

The Experience released 3 albums in 1967 and 1968 before Hendrix’s sudden death in 1970. Redding and Mitchell subsequently signed a deal in the early ‘70s that gave them a one-time payout in exchange for their rights to any further royalties from the Experience’s recordings. Since then, those rights have turned out to be worth millions, due to licensing rights, CD reissues, and the streaming market.

Since this decision hit the news on the same day that 2K pulled Spec Ops: The Line off Steam, it may be that the game has been delisted due to the imminent lawsuit. There’s been no official confirmation on this, but it’d make sense given the industry.

As per MobyGames, the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s music has only appeared in a handful of video games over the years, almost none of which are still in circulation. 1968’s “Voodoo Chile,” for example, is in a few old WWE video games as Hulk Hogan’s entrance theme, none of which have been ported to modern storefronts. Spec Ops: The Line may actually be the only video game that you can go out and buy right now that has the Jimi Hendrix Experience on its soundtrack.

At time of writing, Spec Ops is still available for purchase from the Xbox Store, GOG, and Humble. If you haven’t played it, now might be a good time to pick it up, as it might be your last chance for a while.