Three early Gameloft titles delisted from the Windows Phone Store

Assassin's Creed UNO Brain Challenge Windows phone delisted

Earlier this week, three Xbox Windows Phone seven titles from Gameloft suddenly got delisted from the Store. It's not totally unusual for games to exist delisted; at the terminate of September a record-setting 11 games received the aforementioned handling. But most of those games handled In-App Purchases (IAPs) via now-defunct Microsoft Points. None of the newly pulled Gameloft games had IAPs.

The main thing these latest delisted games had in common (besides their publisher and beingness Windows Phone 7 launch titles) is that all three went on auction on September 26, the same week every bit the mass IAP delisting. Head past the break for details and our speculation as to what happened.

The games nosotros lost

Assassin's Creed for Windows Phone

The iii games to drib from the Store this week are:

Assassinator's Creed: Altair'south Chronicles HD : A mobile port of the 2008 DS game based on the popular console series. The Windows Telephone game features decent 3D graphics and a fully vocalisation-acted story. Other than poor controls for jumping and a too loftier price of $4.99, Altair's Chronicles is a quality action title.
Encephalon Challenge HD : Also a port of a 2008 DS and iOS title. Created to cash in on the brain grooming craze that Nintendo kick-started on DS, Brain Challenge is generally inoffensive and forgettable. But the Windows Phone version suffers from an amazing number of broken Achievements. Overpriced at $4.99.
UNO Hard disk drive : A single-player version of the archetype carte du jour game. No replay value, simply delightfully piece of cake Achievements. The contempo release of UNO & Friends rendered this version largely obsolete.

Why the disappearance?

UNO HD for Windows Phone

I'chiliad a fact checker. Sometimes investigating holds upwardly a story a bit, but often it reveals new insights and produces a more accurate story. In this case, we held off while our contact at Gameloft tried to find out why the games were pulled. Unfortunately, Gameloft couldn't get back to us by press fourth dimension. We'll update if they provide a statement down the line.

Anyway, my beginning instinct when a licensed game gets delisted is that the license probably expired. We've seen it before with Star Wars Cantina, Fast & Furious: Adrenaline, and other titles. Simply all 3 of these latest pulled games are nevertheless available on iOS, so it seems unlikely that Gameloft lost the licenses to them. And then again, who'southward to say the iOS versions won't become pulled a lilliputian later?

Another guess: possibly they were delisted because of the Hd in their titles? As Windows Phone 7 games, none of them can run at what we consider high-definition resolutions (720P or greater). But Gameloft's Earthworm Jim HD remains on the Shop, so the HD in their names tin can't be the reason either.

Brain Challenge for Windows Phone

The only other commonality that comes to heed is the games existence part of that sale from a few weeks ago. Could something take gone incorrect when titles reverted back to full cost? It sounds giddy, but it is possible.

Alternately, I could run across the games existence pulled over quality concerns. I certainly pointed out their flaws (every bit I perceive them) in my commodity about the September sale. Brain Claiming in particular has long disappointed Achievement hunters. But Assassinator'southward Creed isn't that bad, and UNO would be okay at the 99 cent price point.

For now, we're left with no official explanation for the delistings. Gameloft could still come up through with the missing details though, and so never say never.

If you lot own any of the delisted titles, make certain y'all don't delete them from your device. In one case a game is removed from the Store, users who own it have no fashion to redownload it at a hereafter date.

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