Grand Theft Auto IV is no longer for sale for unknown reasons

Grand Theft Auto IV, the well-known open world game from 2008, is no longer for sale on Steam since this weekend. On the Steam Store page, the price and buy button simply disappeared. The dlc, Episodes from Liberty City, is still for sale.

Game media such as Neowin have asked developer Rockstar Games for comment about the sales freeze, but they have not yet responded. The Complete Edition of the game is also not available. It could possibly be rights related: licensed music can be used in a game for a limited period of time before it has to be taken out again. Probably for that reason, GTA IV, for example, got a patch in April of 2018, but the music was also brought back in August of last year without text and explanation.

GTA IV is also not available in the official Rockstar store and the Rockstar launcher, but older games such as GTA: Vice City and GTA 3 are present. The url for GTA IV at Rockstar still works, but buying the digital PC edition does not work. It is unclear since when that is.

Users who already have the game on Steam will in any case still be able to install and play it, as is always the case with Steam. New digital copies of the game are currently available for purchase from third-party stores.