Pandemic has been withdrawn from Steam and app stores for reasons the publisher “cannot disclose”

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Digital board game Pandemic has been withdrawn from sale on Steam and mobile devices “for a multitude of reasons” that publisher Asmosdee “cannot disclose”.

Although there’s been no head’s up from the distributor, Pandemic has already been withdrawn from Steam and both Apple and Google App stores, with plans to remove it from Xbox and Switch at the end of January and July this year respectively. 

Though the notice (opens in new tab) on Pandemic’s Steam page – which intimates that the game was pulled on January 6 – simply says “at the request of the publisher, Pandemic: The Board Game is no longer available for sale on Steam”, players reached out (opens in new tab) to Asmodee for an explanation. As spotted by PC Gamer (opens in new tab), this was the company’s mysterious reply:

“First of all, we want to thank you and all the Pandemic players for your loyalty and support over time. Unfortunately, we are taking the Pandemic app off the stores. We have worked hard over four years on Pandemic and withdrawing it from the stores has not been an easy choice. This decision was made with a heavy heart for a multitude of reasons that we cannot disclose.

“For now, only PC, App Store and Google Play has been removed. Microsoft version will follow January 31, 2022, and then Nintendo Switch by the end of July 2022.”

If you already own the game, you can still download it, though.

“Regarding the game, as long as it has been purchased and downloaded prior to removal from the store, then you will continue to have access to the game,” Asmosdee explained. “If you do uninstall the game, you will need to access your library to locate and install the game again.”

Pandemic ranked as our second favorite in our list of the best board games (opens in new tab) of 2021, and we also gave it five out of five stars in our Pandemic board game review. (opens in new tab) 

“If you’ve not tried the Pandemic board game before, you need to remedy that immediately,” we said at the time. “Although it’s taken on a new edge for obvious reasons, it remains one of the best board games ever made.”

Here are our picks of the best card games (opens in new tab), best board games (opens in new tab), and the best tabletop RPGs (opens in new tab) right now.