For one reason or another, video games are often removed from sale in digital stores, leaving those who have already purchased the opportunity to continue using the product as they wish, but this is not the case.
Image source: Epic Games Store
The American Night School Studio, owned by Netflix, notified users of the digital store itch.io, who own a copy of the Oxenfree adventure on the site, about imminent changes in the conditions for hosting the game.
As it turned out, on October 1, Oxenfree will become unavailable on itch.io, and its owners will no longer be able to download the purchased game. To continue using the product, you must download it before the mentioned date.
By the time the material was published, Oxenfree had ceased to appear in the itch.io search results, and an attempt to go to the game page directly results in a message about access being limited by the author of the project.
Image Source: Reddit (ImageDehoster)
Users discussing the situation on the Reddit and ResetEra forums criticized the decision, but the blame for the situation was placed not on Night School Studio, but on the streaming giant Netflix that owns it.
As players noted, developers on itch.io have the opportunity to remove the game from sale, leaving owners with access to download the product, but Night School Studio (Netflix) decided not to use this option.
Oxenfree debuted in January 2016 and is available on PC (Steam, GOG, EGS), PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. In 2021, Night School Studio became part of Netflix, and in 2023 it released a sequel, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals.