Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Electronic Arts, singleplayer action game Shadows of the Damned was launched in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. What made this title intriguing to fans is that its design was created by two designers—Shinji Mikami, who has worked on popular games like Resident Evil, and Goichi Suda, who worked on No More Heroes.
Fast forward to a few years, though, and the game completely disappeared out of nowhere from the Microsoft Store back in 2020. Not only that, interested players could no longer purchase its digital version. Many fans theorized that Grasshopper Manufacture and Electronic Arts’ publishing deal was probably no longer ongoing, which made the publisher delist the game from its digital storefront.
However, around one week after Microsoft Store removed Shadows of the Damned, the title suddenly reappeared in the storefront once again—returning as suddenly as it had left. It has been available on the platform ever since then on the Xbox One through backward compatibility. Not only that, it’s also available to play via EA Play’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Sadly, the story doesn’t end there for Shadows of the Damned. This week, Microsoft made it known to the public that several games from the Xbox Game Pass would no longer be available starting February 16, and it appears that one of the games on that list is Shadows of the Damned.
This may seem like a harmless thing to many. After all, it’s not a new thing for a game to be removed from the Xbox Game Pass, as the platform cleans out its library of games every month or so to make space for newer games. However, what is unusual about this is the fact that the title will be completely removed from the EA Play catalog.
As a result, fans have begun to speculate that Shadows of the Damned is going to be delisted once again, which is why it’s going to be completely removed from the Microsoft Store. We have yet to prove the verity of these speculations, but if they end up to be true, then players will probably only have until February 16 to buy a digital copy of the game if they want one.
Of course, those fans who already have a physical copy of Shadows of the Damned can breathe easy. They will still be able to play the game on their PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
On the other hand, those who don’t want to purchase a digital copy of the game can simply binge-play the title until its removal in the next few weeks. If they want to actually finish the game from start to finish, then they only need to spare 10 to 20 hours of play time.
Shadows of the Damned is about Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who traverses through the hellish City of the Damned to try and rescue the love of his life by “defeating the armies of darkness with the power of the light.”
It would truly be a shame if Shadows of the Damned gets delisted. The title was generally well-received by its players and critics, so we hope that the title will return to the storefront in the future.
