Adding a final indignity to Telltale Games’ catastrophic downfall, it looks like their kid-friendly (and admittedly rather naff) adventure series Minecraft: Story Mode may be more than just pulled from stores soon. A blog post on the official Minecraft site warns that even players who own Minecraft: Story Mode, seasons one or two, may not be available to download after June 25. The game has already been pulled from all PC storefronts, and the only option left to purchase now is the physical DVD version, but I’m not sure if that version has inline DRM or not. A grim situation.
Mojang’s announcement feels like it’s casting its net a bit wide. Their announcement covers all versions of the game, from Windows to PS3, Switch and even iOS and Android. Curiously, they don’t mention the Netflix adaptation of the game, which boiled it down to a sequence of pre-rendered videos with binary decision points and generally reduced branching. While Minecraft: Story Mode is probably among Telltale’s weakest productions, it’s still a real kick in the squish for anyone who cares about game preservation.
There aren’t many places to buy Telltale games anymore. Many of their licensed games disappeared a long time ago, including the charming Wallace & Gromit, and another big wave of their library disappeared on May 27. If you picked them up through Steam or GOG, you should still be able to download the games for the foreseeable future. I hope the same applies to Minecraft: Story Mode and I’m just being overly cautious, but when Mojang issues a warning telling people to download ahead of time, it’s concerning. Better to err on the side of caution.
The final delisting and service interruption (wow, that’s a grim phrase these days) is June 25. Make sure everything is enabled, downloaded, and backed up before that, just in case. The PC DVD version of the game appears to be still available through Amazon, but it doesn’t indicate whether or not it requires Steam to be activated. You can also find the Netflix adaptation herealthough it obviously requires a subscription.