Deadpool reappears on Steam after a year-long absence

By Danny Cowan July 16, 2015

deadpool returns to steam header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The PC version of Activision’s Marvel-licensed Deadpool has reappeared on Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam after quietly vanishing without explanation several months back.

The game’s apparent relaunch follows closely behind the recent release of a trailer for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Deadpool movie, as seen at San Diego Comic-Con.

Recommended Videos

Developed by High Moon Studios, Activision’s Deadpool premiered in 2013 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms. The first-ever game featuring Marvel’s wisecracking “merc with a mouth” in a starring role, Deadpool is a third-person shooter that makes frequent trips into fourth wall-breaking territory, poking fun at the video games industry and its dominant trends.

As soon as 2014 rolled around, though, digital versions of Deadpool were nowhere to be found. The game was delisted without prior warning or explanation from Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and Steam in January last year, and never resurfaced in the months afterward.

While players who purchased Deadpool during its brief window of availability were still able to redownload the game after the delisting, anyone seeking it out in 2014 had to track down a physical copy in order to get their Deadpool fix.

Several Marvel-licensed games disappeared from digital storefronts in early 2014, including Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, X-Men: The Official Game, X-Men: Destiny, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

To date, none of these games have resurfaced on digital platforms. X-Men: Destiny in particular is unlikely to ever be available for purchase in the future, given that the game was at the center of a lawsuit between developer Silicon Knights and Unreal Engine creator Epic Games. Silicon Knights was ordered to recall and destroy all unsold retail copies of X-Men: Destiny after a North Carolina court ruled in favor of Epic Games.

Currently, only the Steam version of Deadpool is restored and available for purchase. The game is still missing in action on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

The Steam version of Deadpool is priced at $40.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Entertainment

Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t the solution for the MCU’s problems

6 people stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In its second weekend at the box office, Deadpool & Wolverine took in approximately $97 million... which is more than most films make in their first weekend. By the end of next weekend, it will likely pass $500 million domestic, which would make it one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest hits to date. The executives at Marvel Studios and Disney are surely celebrating the film's success, especially after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels bombed in 2023. But if they think that Deadpool & Wolverine is the solution for all of the MCU's problems then they are sorely mistaken.

One hit is not going to solve the issues that have plagued Marvel since 2019. There have been some huge movies that came out during that timespan, including Spider-Man: No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that performed like peak MCU flicks. But more often than not, there's been a downward trend in both the quality of Marvel's films and the response that they've received from the audience. Pretending that Deadpool & Wolverine fixed all of those issues isn't going to help anyone, least of all Marvel, if the studio can't learn from its mistakes.

Entertainment

5 MCU pairings that deserve their own team-up movie like Deadpool & Wolverine

A masked Ryan Reynolds covers his mouth as Hugh Jackman glowers in a still from the movie "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Almost everyone with eyes knew that Deadpool & Wolverine was going to be a much-needed hit for Marvel Studios. Putting Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine into the same movie is just a no-brainer. Marvel's been making team-up comic books for decades, and this isn't even the first MCU movie to do the same thing. Thor: Ragnarok was really a Thor and Hulk movie, while the MCU Spider-Man trilogy with Tom Holland featured supporting roles for Iron Man, Nick Fury, and Doctor Strange.

If one of the lessons from Deadpool & Wolverine is that Marvel needs more films like these, then these are the five MCU pairings who deserve their own team-up movie. With few exceptions, most of these roles have already been cast.
Spider-Man and Human Torch

Entertainment

Has Deadpool & Wolverine put the MCU back on the right track?

Deadpool and Wolverine stand near a metal cage in Marvel's Deadpool & Wolverine.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).

In case you haven't already heard: The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on a bit of a decline these past few years. At this point, the once-dominant franchise's current state isn't just an open secret -- it's a well-known fact worthy of being referenced multiple times in Deadpool & Wolverine by the film's eponymous Merc with a Mouth. In its third act, Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson even openly pleads for Marvel to abandon multiversal storytelling altogether. He does that, of course, in a film that ends with his universe being saved from extinction and allowed to exist safely again in Marvel's multiverse. There's no point critiquing that contradiction. Making fun of things without fixing them has always been Deadpool's thing, after all.