Oxenfree no longer available for download on Itch.io
Oxenfree is a beloved narrative adventure game reminiscent of The Goonies and Stranger Things. It’s available practically everywhere, from the digital store Steam to the Nintendo Switch. However, fans who purchased it from the indie distributor itch.io received an unpleasant email on Sunday. If you bought Oxenfree on itch, you had until October 1st to download it or it would be lost forever.
Itch.io is a unique store. It’s a place where independent developers showcase their work and people sell games, fanzines, and comics. Developers who sell on itch avoid the high cut taken by other stores like Steam or the Epic Store and often sell games without DRM. Players who bought Oxenfree on itch could simply download a zip file with the executable inside. If they lost the file, they could always log in to itch and download it again.
But not for much longer.
A Trick to Get the Game
“Oxenfree will no longer be available on itch.io starting October 1, 2024,” read an email sent by the studio through itch.io. “If you have already downloaded the game, you can keep it and continue playing with the downloaded files. If you haven’t done so yet, you can download the files until October 1, 2024 to keep the game. Everyone who worked on Oxenfree deeply appreciates the support of our community over the past eight years and we hope to see you on another service or timeline soon. Thank you!”
At the time of writing, the Oxenfree page on Itch.io . At first glance, this may not seem so serious. Oxenfree is widely available on several digital stores for $9.99, the same price Night School Studio was charging on itch. It’s also available for free on Netflix.
Netflix has been trying to enter the gaming market for years. Anyone with a Netflix subscription can download and play various games on their phone or tablet. That includes Oxenfree. The streaming studio .
Online, due to the removal of the game from itch. “This is probably Netflix’s doing,” .
“This is 100% a Netflix decision rather than a Night School Studio decision. At least the Steam version seems to still be available, so it’s not completely being taken away. But still, it’s a shame for those who bought that game on itch.io specifically,” said a user in the .
The situation is a reminder that everything online is ephemeral. If you’re buying a digital version of a video game, movie, or album on a digital store, there’s no guarantee that you will always have access to it. Control is entirely in the hands of the distributor.
Night School Studio did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
This article has been translated from Gizmodo US by Lucas Handley. You can find the original version.
