The Deadpool Game Is Being Pulled From Digital Stores, Again

From games to movies to TV and beyond, superhero properties are being pushed out onto the market in short order. So our ears perk up a bit when we hear a superhero videogame will soon be removed from the digital marketplace. Get ready to say bye-bye to Deadpool. Again.

Back before the Deadpool movie was all the rage, Activision published a game based on the Marvel anti-hero that managed to earn something of a cult following despite less-than-stellar reviews. Maybe people just really enjoyed Nolan North's interpretation of the character, no matter how groan-worthy the jokes were? You have to remember that this was back in 2013, well before we knew that Deadpool would eventually become a box office smash.

As we all know, licensing is a tricky business and, if a publisher decides maintaining a property isn't worth the hassle, they sometimes abandon them. When that happens, we see the game disappear from digital retailers like PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace. That's exactly what happened with Deadpool back in early 2014, a mere six months after the game originally launched.

Fast forward to late 2015 and all anyone could talk about was how great that new Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds looked. While the character's original appearance in the Wolverine film series was abysmal, the game at least offered a more accurate portrayal of Sr. Pool that was in line with what the Hollywood film had cooking.

So what does Activision do? They pick the game back up, dust it off, spruce it up a bit for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and launch it on modern consoles in order to cash in on the hype. Keep in mind we're not judging here. That makes a heck of a lot of sense and it likely paid off for the publisher.

Well, apparently things are back to being "meh" fir the game, as Gameinformer is reporting that Deadpool is once again being removed from digital marketplaces. This all apparently goes down tomorrow (Thursday) so, if you've just got to add the game to your collection, now would be the time to rush out and grab it. But, as the original story points out, it's not like the reviews got much better the second time around. But again, we won't judge you...Much.

So while the game only lasted six months the first time around, Activision at least kept it around a full two years this time. Still, with all of the buzz surrounding the second Deadpool movie due out next year, we're a bit curious about the full story here. Is it possible they're going to wait until a bit close to the movie launch and then bring it back again? Due to the original film's success, is it possible licensing the character has gotten more expensive and, with their contract running out, Activision decided not to bother with a continuation? Is it possible a new Deadpool game is coming out and folks were worried the old game might cause some confusion?

Feel free to speculate in the comments below.