What you need to know
- Alpha Protocol is an espionage role-playing game from Microsoft's Obsidian Entertainment.
- The game was removed from Steam today because Sega's publishing rights expired.
- It's unclear if it's going to return to the platform.
- Rights may have reverted back to Obsidian, thus Microsoft.
Updated June 20, 2019: Sega is now claiming that only its music rights expired so that's why the game was removed from Steam.
Ever since Microsoft acquired Obsidian Entertainment, gamers have been curious about what the status of other titles the acclaimed developer has worked on is. Out of all of these, Alpha Protocol gets asked about the most. The game launched in 2010 and is an espionage-focused role-playing game. You could customize your spy however you wanted and embarked on dangerous missions like James Bond.
This morning, news broke that publisher Sega had removed the title from Steam. A few hours later, a spokesperson for the company told Game Watcher the following.
Following the expiry of Sega publishing rights for Alpha Protocol, the title has been removed from Steam and is no longer on sale.
Many thought that Sega owned the rights to the franchise, but there have been a lot of mixed messages from the publisher in recent years. Hopefully, now that the rights have expired, it means that Obsidian is in control of the franchise. Considering that Microsoft owns Obsidian, they should be in control of Alpha Protocol. We've reached out to Microsoft for comment and shall update you as soon as we receive a response.
The title was quite popular in 2010 and a sequel is in hot demand. With Microsoft's backing, Obsidian may be able to iron out the technical side which plagued the first game. Do you want an Alpha Protocol 2? Let us know.
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