Telltale games being removed from GOG.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/23/18637018/telltale-games-gog-com-delisting

Telltale Games’ remaining game catalog will be delisted from digital storefront GOG on Monday, May 27, according to an announcement from the online retailer. The delisting is the result of Telltale Games’ studio closure last year.

This could lead to other stores removing the games.

Nothing lasts forever unfortunately. The only Telltale game I own is Batman: The Enemy Within and that's the only Telltale game I enjoy.

Why would they stop selling, I mean if nobody owns the copyright currently then hold the cash until a new owner asks for it. Or just keep the cash because there is nobody to come after you for it.

welp, i better buy the games i dont yet before they remove it from PSN also.

Yet another example of why we need to ensure that physical media sticks around and that the gaming industry never becomes 100% digital.

I agree delisting makes zero sense, but that's generally what happens whenever rights are lost or in question.

It's also probably not true that "nobody" owns the copyright to these games. The rights are probably still technically owned by Telltale, but as the company is in the process of being liquidated they will need to bid out their assets... it might still all be in a courtroom while they get those bankruptcy proceedings all sorted out and try to pay off their debtors. A major issue is going to be that Telltale themselves licensed pretty much everything they did, these aren't original IP. So it may not even be possible to transfer these properties to new owners... i.e. Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, etc...

Supposedly 2K is trying to get "Tales from the Borderlands" since that is their licensed IP and they want the game back up, hopefully that one ends up pretty cut and dried. But some of the others might be more dubious for anyone to acquire since they'd be dealing with companies who aren't into games development... i.e. AMC (Walking Dead) or Disney (Gaurdians of the Galazy). Maybe, similar to 2K, Warner will want to take ownership over the Game of Thrones and Batman games that Telltale did and make sure those are back up and available. But then again if the market is puny for these games a company like Disney or Warner simply might not care to take the steps that would be necessary... might just go totally under their radar.

Is that how it works? I've always wondered how licensed sales for defunct studios work out.

I imagine if they went bankrupt, then sales would go to pay their debt back? i.e. to the bank, government, and so forth. In that case, the retailer would still probably get their cut, too, so yeah not really sure why they would stop selling.

Fortunately I already Monkey Island 5 so it won't be removed from my library.