The popular strategy game R.U.S.E. has been removed from Steam as well having its website taken down due to licensing issues, Ubisoft has confirmed.
Since releasing back in 2010 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, R.U.S.E. has enjoyed a steady playerbase on Steam, that’s despite support on the title being stopped pretty much after the game was released. However the game has been unavailable to purchase after being removed from Steam back in December, with even the developer Eugen Systems stating that they have no clue why the game was removed.
There were calls from both gamers and the developers to have the game reinstated on Steam and become available for purchase however that never happened. The game is still available to play for those who have already purchased a copy of the game though with player levels still remaining steady despite the absence of any new players for the game.
“As far as we are concerned, I couldn’t get any reason for what happened,” a moderator on the developers forums stated. “My boss even learned about it from me. And unfortunately, all the people I knew at Ubisoft back then are gone. The Ubi producer working with us for RUSE was Mathieu Girard, whom since then has created his own studio (Amplitude, creator of the Endless series).”
However it seems that we finally have an answer as to why the game was pulled from Steam and its website being removed. Ubisoft revealed that some of the military items which are in R.U.S.E. were used under a license that Ubisoft had purchased. That license has since expired and therefore legally the game had to be removed from sale as Ubisoft will not be renewing those licenses.
“Due to the expiration of licensing rights over certain military items within the game, R.U.S.E is no longer available for purchase,” Ubisoft told PCGamesN. “This does not, in anyway, affect players who already have the game in their library.”