Midnight Club: LA is back on Xbox after being delisted

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is once again available on the Xbox store, but we don't know why or for how long.

ResetEra users spotted the re-emergence of Rockstar's 2008 racing game, which had been delisted before appearing again without ceremony. Rockstar didn't make any big announcements about the game coming back, and it doesn't appear to have been relisted on other platforms. All the real-world licensing considerations required for the game's car manufacturers and external music make this an especially odd one to just show up again.

Players who have tried to purchase the game are sharing varying levels of success, but it looks like you may be able to get through after a few tries. If and when you do, you should be able to play Midnight Club: Los Angeles on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility.

This is an odd turn of events, but it isn't an isolated one for Rockstar. Along with putting out surprise updates for both Max Payne 3 and LA Noire that unlocked free DLC earlier this month, Midnight Club 2 was also briefly relisted on Steam before Rockstar pulled it back down again. Rockstar's clearly doing some back catalog maintenance right now, but we'll have to wait and see whether it ends up going toward anything bigger.

Meanwhile, there's at least one very big thing to look forward to from Rockstar Games in the future: the unannounced but otherwise assured arrival of GTA 6, which is rumored to take place in the modern day just like the last two.