Publisher Asmodee Digital has quietly pulled the digital version of Pandemic: The Board Game from Steam, with other digital platforms to follow soon. While perhaps not a board game on PC that people might want to play right now, the publisher has said that it’s delisting Pandemic for “a multitude of reasons”.
Back in August 2018, Asmodee published a digital version of the popular board game Pandemic by Z-Man Games on Steam – tasking several players with containing a crazy “what if” science fiction scenario where a deadly infectious disease spreads over the planet. Of course, it all got a little too real after a while, but the game continued to be sold on Steam throughout the last two years – even getting a “Mutation” DLC last year.
On January 6 this year, however, Asmodee delisted Pandemic from Steam. According to Reddit user bad_boy_barry (via PC Gamer), who got in touch with the publisher, it confirms that it is removing Pandemic from sale. “We have worked hard over 4 years on Pandemic and withdrawing it from the stores has not been an easy choice,” the statement reads.
As for why now, Asmodee would only say that “this decision was made with a heavy heart for a multitude of reasons that we cannot disclose”. For now, the main PC and phone versions of Pandemic have been withdrawn and the Microsoft Store/Xbox version is set to go by the end of this month. The publisher does at least confirm that anyone who bought Pandemic prior to delisting will still be able to re-download it from their Steam library.
If you want to buy Pandemic now, you’ll either have to download it for Tabletop Simulator or a similar title or get the original board game – which has a World of Warcraft version, you know.