Legendary skating games OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome just got yanked from storefronts after less than 3 years, and no one knows why

Update: A representative for 2K says neither OlliOlli World nor Rollerdrome were included in Private Division's 2024 sale to an unknown buyer, and that they will return to Steam under 2K Games.

Original Story:
Effortless skating games OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome have both been suddenly delisted from Steam and the Xbox Store following publisher Private Division's sale to an unidentified buyer in 2024.

OlliOlli World has also been removed from the US Nintendo Switch storefront, though it's apparently obtainable in the UK. As of writing, the glossy, 2022 action games are also available to purchase on PlayStation.

But, since OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome's disappearances have been a gradual, furtive process over the past few days, even their availability on PlayStation might change soon. Not that anyone knows why.

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Former Private Division owner Take-Two has been elusive over the past few months. Later reporting revealed that OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome's developer Roll7 was dissolved ahead of Private Division's sale, though Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick insisted in a 2024 IGN interview that "we haven't shuttered anything." In 2023, Zelnick earned $42 million.

Around that same time, Rollerdrome developer Anisa Sanusi told fans to "please pirate it because none of us work at the company that owns [Rollerdrome] anymore," clarifying in later posts on Twitter that "the studio I loved working at no longer exists, and my friends and former colleagues were laid off."

While Take-Two still has not revealed Private Division's buyer, Bloomberg reports the publisher's titles will be absorbed by a group of former Annapurna Interactive staff, who resigned in 2024 after feuding with the Stray publisher's owner.

Other Private Division games, including the celestial RPG and breakout title The Outer Worlds, continue to be available on storefronts, as are Roll7 games released by other publishers. In any case, OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome now serve as uncomfortable reminders that even the best digital-only games can easily vanish if a fickle owner wants them to.

Let's at least remember them fondly: OlliOlli World already feels like 2022's most essential indie.