A recent Steam port of 2006 action-adventure game Scarface: The World Is Yours has been taken down by publisher EC Digital owing to what the studio describes as “unexpected complications and concerns”.
In a news post, EC Digital says that “certain builds” of the game were released on “other platforms”, and that this release was “unintended”, so the studio feels it’s “necessary to pause and reevaluate” with regards to Scarface: The World Is Yours‘ re-release.
Apparently, the Steam page for the game was “initially intended as a placeholder” while EC Digital worked through what it calls “ongoing licensing and technical matters”. The company also points to something it mysteriously calls “urgent discussions with multiple parties concerning the project’s status”.
Rather confusingly, the game remains available via the Epic Games Store, which is presumably one of the “other platforms” on which its release caused this trouble in the first place. It’s not clear why the game has been removed from Steam, but not from Epic.
As spotted by GamesRadar, however, the re-release of Scarface: The World Is Yours contains two mods created by community members, both of which are intended to enhance the original Windows version and make it playable on modern systems.
One of the modders, Silent, who created the eponymous SilentPatch, says they weren’t contacted about Scarface: The World Is Yours‘ re-release on PC.
The author of FusionFix, the other mod included in this re-release, was contacted, but Silent says it’s unlikely the original Scarface IP holders are aware of this new version. In short, this seems like a pretty big mess, and I’d be amazed if the game re-appears on PC storefronts following this debacle.
EC Digital doesn’t appear to have any other games published under its name on Steam, so I think it’s fair to say this re-release is suspect, to say the least. It sounds as though the publisher may not have acquired the appropriate licenses or talked to the right people before going ahead with this.
In any case, if you do want to check out this PC port of Scarface: The World Is Yours…well, it’s technically available via the Epic Games Store, but I’d save my money and wait for more concrete confirmation of the port’s legitimacy if I were you.
