TMNT: Cowabunga Collection getting delisted in Japan, not everywhere else... YET!

Still, this is a licensed series, and unless you're Disney with Star Wars (sans SoulCalibur IV with Bandai Namco... and Rogue Squadron II because it's not KOTOR or RC, I guess), they're almost assuredly gonna get delisted eventually. Glad I bought it physically (Switch version, and Xbox when I can) when I did.

Can't trust they "but if you already bought it" excuse after Sony screwed customers... TWICE (Funimation/Crunchyroll, WB IPs).

Damn, that means the people who bought the game digitally lost access forever. 😫

Good Japan doesn’t deserve it

Good game, this Cowabunga collection? Maybe I will also get on Switch.

Nice to have this type of PSA.

If any of my friends or family don't get it but change their mind and want to play it in the future and can't buy it, at least they can borrow my physical copy.

The games in the collection are still fun. Did you want to buy the game before at all, or just now? Have you played any of the games before in the collection? Maybe you don't really want it, and it's just FOMO.

If you purchased it the game should remain downloadable. If they took your money then stole your purchase away they deserve to be burned at the stake. Thieves.

Gotta remember to grab that if same happens in other regions, just waiting for that too good sale, but yeah, Konami and their licensed content, wish they could negotiate better terms with a royalty split or something, they had the Simpsons arcade game beat em up available for like a minute back on Xbox 360 XBLA, boy I'd love to have gotten that or even still be able to play it. They got at home arcade cabinets for that though, for a few hundred dollars. I'd buy if they managed to have multiple of their games working on it, from the TMNT games to Sunset Riders, the Simpsons, heck, throw in the Aliens arcade game too while they're at it.

Ah the slippery slope that is the digital format.

It sold poorly in Japan. According to PlayTracker, only like 1% of the game's worldwide Steam sales came from Japan.

Despite being partly based on Japanese culture, the TMNT phenomenon was never really a thing in Japan. It just never took off there, not even the Japanese-made Konami games.

Physical copy will be removed also. Can never trust physical, they always take them from you.

That may be the case but @lamprey263 made a good point at how BAD Konami are retaining licenses too.

@Jag85: Really? I always thought TMNT had somewhat of a success in Japan. I guess Turtles aren't a thing for Japanese culture.

@davillain: Their TMNT is more like a super sentai show. It's more that the turtles are small and goofy until they transform and become big and powerful. The enemies and story is completely different.

They might think these games don't make sense. I think there aren't many episodes and it was just never popular.

Glad i've bought the physical collection

If it's not selling in Japan, then there's no point retaining the license in Japan. They'd just be losing money for no reason.

To be fair, TMNT made several attempts to crack the Japanese market:

1. The original American cartoon (or American-Japanese cartoon, since animation work was outsourced to Toei) was dubbed into Japanese. It failed to take off in Japan.
2. They gave the video game license to a Japanese developer, Konami. Their TMNT games were big hits in the West, yet failed in Japan.
3. The third TMNT movie was made with a Japanese audience in mind. It was a flop in Japan.
4. They made an anime adaptation of TMNT (in a similar style to Super Sentai, a.k.a. Power Rangers). It still failed in Japan.

However, it's worth keeping in mind the tough competition that TMNT was facing in Japan at the time. It released right when Dragon Ball was taking Japan by storm (RIP Akira Toriyama). Dragon Ball's serial "saga" format (i.e. dozens of episodes stringed together as a saga) was revolutionary, becoming the new standard for shonen anime shows and making "monster of week" shows feel dated in comparison. TMNT was essentially a "monster of the week" show, so it would've been tough to stand out in a market dominated by Dragon Ball and its imitators (it took another decade for DBZ fever to reach English-speaking markets).

@Jag85: Still not good in preservations sake. I still would have worries for the western license, especially given TMNT games (Konami, Tribute Games, Raw Thrills) are gonna be all over the place.

@nintendoboy16: Konami is a business, not a charity. If a product isn't making them money, then they have every right to sell off the license. Thankfully, TMNT is making them money in the West, so they should retain the license for as long as it keeps selling in the West. It's just not selling in Japan, so they sold off the license in Japan.

You know, when Nintendo fans make that excuse, they get eviscerated. And last I checked, Konami still has as much disdain as Nintendo. And EA. And Acti... okay, not going THAT far.

@nintendoboy16: Nintendo, Konami, EA and Activision are all businesses who operate on profit. If something makes money, they'll keep supporting it. If it loses money, they'll stop supporting it. Capitalism 101.

But does this affect people who already bought it?? Wouldn’t think so, so can we stop pretending this is some reason not to go digital??

It does affect future generations who might want to play it in future. That's why physical is essential for future generations and for game preservation.

@last_lap: In the worst-case scenario that companies remove games from digital stores, there will always be an alternative option (ROM dumps). If companies don't want to monetize it, then gamers will always find other means to access it. And whatever goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet.

Would you say the same when the license eventually wears up in the west, which again, Konami has a history of mismanaging? If one falls, they ALL fall. This is what the all-digital future "rewards" us.

Also, since Nintendo is on the list here, New Horizons made a lot of money, but Nintendo dropped support for. That argument only worked for the Wii U, and people still lost their minds over THAT shut down despite being Nintendo's worst selling console NOT the VB.

@nintendoboy16: Whenever games get delisted on Steam, people who purchased those games still keep them. It just means new potential buyers won't be able to purchase them anymore. It's like when physical games eventually cease production. Delisting a game off a digital store is the functional equivalent.

I don't play New Horizons, so I have no clue what you're talking about there. Did they shut down Wii U servers? That's not the same thing as delisting a game from a digital store.

"Whenever games get delisted on Steam, people who purchased those games still keep them."

There is a reason I brought up two incidents with Sony and their digital purchases, this isn't always the case.

"new potential buyers won't be able to purchase them anymore."

That there is a problem. Digital is said to be more convenient than physical. Yet when delistings happen? Kind of helps defeat that purpose.

New Horizons didn't get delisted. It DID however get announcements that Nintendo was no longer gonna update the game. And for an online centric AC, yeah... not good.

Wii U's arguments were on game preservation. For a console that, again, didn't get support like the internet acts like.

@nintendoboy16:

What did Sony do? I own a number of Steam games that have been delisted, and have never had any issues accessing them. Unless it's different for consoles?

The way I see it, delistings are no different to physical games ceasing production. If a license expires, that's the digital equivalent.

Online gaming is inherently digital in nature. I don't see how going physical would make any difference.

They announced this in their wrap-up in the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger. Like, you're not gonna access your digital purchases anymore if you bought them from Funimation. It got the attention of gaming Twitter from doesitplay to John Linneman of Digital Foundry. That shows that ANY company CAN take your digital purchases when the license expires. Just because we haven't seen it in games yet...

At least with physical, you have a chance to buy used if you can. Even if it's like gambling in Vegas or Macau at times.

That seems to be a Sony thing so far. But shrugs when they do it.

We live in such an online required world now, that physical seems a bit redundant to me on home consoles. The games still need to be installed, and they're getting constant big updates. And the online section is at the mercy of publishers.

People mocked the Xbox 360 for their mostly peer to peer online network. But to this day more Xbox 360 games are STILL capable of online gaming. But most PS3 games are not.