Remedy's Alan Wake to be delisted in wake of expiring music licenses

The original Alan Wake game is scheduled to be delisted from online storefronts, and developer Remedy Entertainment says expiring music licenses are to blame. 

Licensed soundtracks can add a lot to a game when used well, but this is one example of something developers should consider before diving into the complicated world of music licensing for their own games.

Depending on the situation, some developers may be able to patch a game to remove the offending tracks but Remedy says that Alan Wake’s situation is “massively more complex than that.” It seems that the expiration affects every song in the game, and as such Alan Wake is set to be pulled from Steam, Xbox Live, and any other digital storefronts on May 15.

While only the original game is slated for removal, Remedy is chopping 90 percent off the price tags of Alan Wake, its DLC, and Alan Wake's American Nightmare this weekend, but only on Steam since the developer notes it can't control pricing on Xbox Live.

Quantum Break, Remedy’s latest game, has also had its share of licensed music woes, this time brought about by video and stream complications. In that case, the developer was able to issue a patch for Quantum Break that made the game’s licensed tracks optional after gameplay videos and streams were flagged for using copyrighted music.