Oxenfreeis a beloved narrative adventure video game that evokesGooniesandStranger Things.
Its available pretty much everywhere, from digital storefront Steam to the Nintendo Switch.
But fans who bought it on indie distributor itch.io got an unpleasant email on Sunday.
Promotional image of ‘Oxenfree.‘© Night School Studios image.
If you boughtOxenfreeon itch, you had until October 1 to download it or it would be gone forever.
Itch.io is a unique storefront.
Its a place where indie devs show off their works and people sell games, zines, and comics.
Players buyingOxenfreefrom itch could simply download a zip file with the executable inside.
If they lost the file they could always log into itch and download it again.
But not for long.
As of this writing, the itch.io pageOxenfreeis down.
Its also available for free on Netflix.
Netflix has been trying to break into the games market for years now.
Anyone with a Netflix sub can download and play various games on their phone or tablet.
The streaming studioacquired Night School Studiothree years ago.
Online,Oxenfreefans blamed Netflixfor the removal of the game from itch.
This is likely Netflix doing this, Wario64said in a post on X.
This 100% is a Netflix call instead of a Night Studio call.
At least the Steam version seems to remain up, so it isnt like its getting completely delisted.
The situation is a reminder that everything online is ephemeral.
The control is entirely in the hands of the distributor.
Night School Studio did not immediately respond to Gizmodos request for comment.
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