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Comment by shantara | Hacker News Reader

The games regularly get pulled from Steam by the publishers, usually when a license for some ingame music expires, but the customers who already own the game typically retain the access to it.

The latest high profile case was the removal of Spec Ops: The Line just last week. Which is especially troubling, because it’s an important part of the gaming history, and it happened with no warning.

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Wow, wtf. The music industry really is a disease.

How can a license to use a song in a game lead to the game not being sold any more.

Why would you ever use such a song in a game…

Especially for a AAA release, licensing music seems like little to be gained.

Music games (eg Rockband), I can understand. People want to play music they know. There are very few musical tie-ins in a video game that seemingly make the difference.

GTA Vice City is one where I can think of where the 80s soundtrack makes the game!

I always found it odd how VC and SA had much more recognizable licensed music, while 4/5 went with less known stuff.

Or maybe I'm getting old :)

I think it's also why games with licensed vehicles are way stricter on how they're presented now (no damage models, etc.). As the big brands became more away of video games as a big thing, they held closer control and pricing compared to it being "ehhh, whatever" remnant income

All of the music used in that game is used so perfectly. The game opens to its title screen with an American flag being flown upside down, with Jimi Hendrix shredding out a scratchy, distorted, echo-y, far-off rendition of The Star Spangled Banner on his electric guitar.

Honestly, they should've licensed more music. Could've used Free Bird too.

Here's a list I found of the non-original songs used in Spec Ops: The Line:

01. Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner

02. Mogwai - R U Still in 2 It

07. Deep Purple - Hush

09. The Black Angels - Bad Vibrations

10. The Black Angels - The First Vietnamese War

14. Giuseppe Verdi - Dies irae

24. Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake

25. Inner Circle - Bad Boys

26. Black Mountain - Stormy High

27. Martha And The Vandellas - Nowhere to Run

30. Björk - Storm

36. Jimi Hendrix - 1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)

37. Groove Addicts - Shellshock

38. Methodic Doubt Music - Half The Man

39. Alice In Chains - Rooster

It is much, much, much cheaper to license something for a set time as opposed to perpetual.

The game with Penny Arcade characters and whatnot playing poker is no longer available to be sold because the licenses expired.

It's far from perfect though as some games to able to be sold again are modified to remove certain licensed content like music. This is in detriment of who ever owned the game before that as the game gets a forced update which caused the previous owners to lose access to the original version.

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