Last updated on April 25, 2026, by Mark Sammut: I added four FPS games that can no longer be purchased, with the update focusing on licensed games. Too many great titles have been lost.
Following the April 16, 2026, EU hearing on game preservation and the ongoing French lawsuit against Ubisoft for revoking licenses, the death of digital games has never been a more hotly debated topic. As the “Stop Killing Games” initiative assumes the biggest stage possible, I cannot help but think of all the great FPS games that have been abandoned and left to the void, destined to never return to Steam or any other digital store.
Be it through expired licenses, sunset servers, or a declining playerbase, games that once were so easily available can suddenly become nothing more than a lingering echo and the subjects of Reddit threads asking about their whereabouts. Some of the greatest shooters of all time have met this fate, and let’s now celebrate their glory and preserve their memories.
You might be able to find a physical copy of some of these FPS games, but they cannot be purchased from digital stores.
10
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Two Fantastic First-Person Action Games Condemned To Licensed Hell
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
- Released
-
April 7, 2009
- ESRB
-
mature 17+
Get ready to read about a couple of licensed games, as they are extremely susceptible to delistings. Once the contract and agreements end, so many of these titles are ripped from digital stores, dooming them to abandonware and relative obscurity since they won’t spend the next few years showing up for $1.99 during Steam sales.
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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a special two-for-one case, as it came packaged with a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay, one of the best licensed games of all time. Both of these titles are fantastic in their own right, blending stealth, gunplay, and melee action to create incredibly well-rounded experiences that are just constantly cool. While a new Riddick film should be in the works, I doubt that it will influence the destinies of either of these games, and you will have to scour second-hand stores for a copy of the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions.
9
James Bond 007: Nightfire
Bond’s Best Gaming Adventure Has Been Delisted For A Long Time
So many of James Bond’s video game escapades have been delisted and condemned to forever exist in the shadow of the more accessible GoldenEye 007. While all the Activision games would eventually follow suit, including the underrated Blood Stone, EA’s 007: Nightfire is the one that hurts the most, and it happened more than a decade ago. OK, you can probably find physical copies of the console versions since the game was fairly popular, but that process is still more trouble and, likely, more expensive than just buying a copy through a digital store.
Nightfire‘s PC port had quite a few issues and was probably the worst version, but there is nothing the modding community cannot fix. More importantly, Nightfire is one of the franchise’s highest peaks in gaming, and its lack of a presence is a shame.
8
Wolfenstein (2009)
A Really Solid Shooter That Feels Like It Has Been Erased From History
Wolfenstein
- Released
-
August 18, 2009
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
Let’s take a break from licensed games for the time being.
It is generally accepted that Wolfenstein: The New Order brought the franchise back into prominence after a period of inactivity, pushing William into the limelight in a big way. Before that, Return to Castle Wolfenstein had successfully brought the series into the 21st century. In between these two seminal releases sits 2009’s Wolfenstein, a really competent shooter that just kind of exists. The game has been delisted for roughly a decade, and it was only available to purchase for around 5 years. Due to its short run, Wolfenstein has just been kind of forgotten.
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The thing is, this is a very, very solid first-person shooter. Yeah, it isn’t as good as The New Order or The New Colossus, but not reaching those high standards is hardly a crime. Raven Software crafted a game with tight gunplay and strong level design, all the while introducing mechanics like the Veil that caters to a power fantasy without making you overpowered.
7
Prey (2006)
A Fairly Unique Game That Is Now Mostly Remembered As The Other Prey Game
2017’s Prey is incredible, but it has nearly nothing to do with the 2006 game that it shares a name with. Human Head’s original Prey also blends FPS elements with exploration and sci-fi, although it plays out slightly more like a conventional shooter than Arkane Studios’ horror hybrid. Although not everything came together perfectly, Prey tried to push the envelope through its puzzles, open-ended levels, weapons, and gravity mechanics, and its setting was refreshing during an era that was entirely dominated by military shooters.
At this point, Prey seems unlikely to return in any form, and that sadly applies to both games. While Arkane’s version is still easily accessible, its ancestor is doomed to quietly fade into history as abandonware. A real shame.
6
Aliens Versus Predator 2
You Will Never Be Able To Buy The Best AVP Game
Aliens vs. Predator 2
- Released
-
October 22, 2001
- ESRB
-
M for Mature – Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
There is nothing more confounding than learning that, for some reason, only the sequel of a game has been delisted. 1999’s Aliens Versus Predator is readily available to purchase in the form Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000, but its 2001 successor has been unattainable for a very long time at this point. Sadly, a lot of Monolith Productions’ games are delisted nowadays, including Condemned: Criminal Origins and another beloved FPS franchise that we will get to in a minute.
AVP2 is, arguably, the best Alien or Predator game of all time, and it was incredibly ambitious for its era. The game has three campaigns from different perspectives that intertwine in clever ways that make everything feel connected. Depending on the playable character, AVP2 shifts genre to match their strengths and weaknesses, resulting in a game that has survival horror, stealth, and guns-blazing campaigns. Even the multiplayer was incredible.
5
Tribes 2
An Early Large-Scale Multiplayer Gem
Tribes 2
- Released
-
March 29, 2001
- Developer(s)
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Dynamix, Loki Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
-
Sierra On-line, Loki Entertainment
Tribes 2 showed a standard of innovation and intricacy in the multiplayer FPS scene that contemporary titles and franchises would still be trying to meet years later. The verticality in this game through jetpack movement gave players new ways to explore the map over a decade before Advanced Warfare’s exo-boost, and allowed for 64 vs 64 player teams in colossal, open maps.
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Tribes 2 cannot be bought today, but it can be downloaded relatively easily, as Sierra On-Line released the title as freeware in 2015, ensuring this game, while somewhat obscure, was available to any players who wanted to give this game’s innovative design a try.
4
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
A Shockingly Great Licensed Game
Along with Spider-Man 2, Peter Jackson’s King Kong was the best movie tie-in game of the 2000s, and it doesn’t get the love that it deserves. Since about 2015, Ubisoft’s game has been impossible to buy digitally, and interested parties will have to try to find a copy of the Xbox 360 version. If you do manage to locate a physical disc, I 100% recommend purchasing it, as the game has a sense of scale that very few titles can match.
The campaign is split between Jack and Kong, and they bring wildly opposing perspectives and experiences. On the human’s side, Jack is stuck in a hellish nightmare where he has to helplessly look up at massive V-Rexes and Kong himself. These sections have FPS gameplay, but they also work as survival horror. When things shift to Kong, players suddenly find themselves beating down monsters that initially towered over them. It is great.
3
The Operative: No One Lives Forever & No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way
Why Can’t I Buy These Games?
Monolith went on an incredible run of releases during the late ’90s and early 2000s, and the team’s crowning achievement was the No One Lives Forever games. The ultimate spy pastiche, these games had it all, at least for their era. The gunplay was about as good as possible for the early 2000s, which was hardly surprising considering Monolith’s work on Blood.
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The level design was fantastic and intelligent, and the enemy AI was really great. Although you won’t mistake them for modern shooters, if you do manage to acquire them nowadays, No One Lives Forever and its sequel are still easy to enjoy, more so than most FPS games from this era. Cate Archer is also an all-time awesome female protagonist, and she should have starred in as many projects as Lara Croft.
2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (And A Slew Of Other Battlefield Games)
EA Delisted This FPS Masterpiece In 2023
In 2023, EA made it impossible to digitally buy a few of their games, with both Bad Company games and Battlefield 1943 joining the likes of Battlefield 2 on the delisted shelf. While all of these titles are great in their own right, Bad Company 2 arguably represents the franchise’s peak, even roughly 15 years after its debut.
The multiplayer was incredible and a major selling point, but even if EA wanted to shut down its servers, Bad Company 2‘s single-player campaign is more than brilliant enough to warrant keeping it available in stores. Maybe, one day, EA will announce a remaster compilation containing the two Bad Company games, but that is just wishful thinking at this point.
1
Unreal Tournament (And Most Of The Franchise)
A Monolithic FPS, Sadly Delisted
This arena-based shooter was an instant classic from its launch, and spawned an entire lineage of compelling FPS titles as well as a thriving local multiplayer scene that would see tournaments hosted for years to come. The shutting down of online services for this game was shortly followed by the title being delisted by Epic Games on all retail platforms.
It’s not known at present if Unreal Tournament will be re-released on Epic’s own platform, or if the open alpha of the new Unreal Tournament will turn into the only source of reliving this classic game for players today.
We included the original Unreal Tournament, but a lot of the franchise’s games are nowadays delisted. Unreal Tournament 3 and 2004 were also great.
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