Rocksmith 2014 has been removed from sale ten years after release, and its DLC will follow

Rocksmith is Ubisoft's take on Guitar Hero, with the key difference being that you can play it with a real guitar. That makes it a good teaching tool as much as it is a game. Or made it a good teaching tool, anyway - Rocksmith 2014 has been removed from sale almost ten years to the day after it launched.

Ubisoft announced that Rocksmith 2014 would be removed from sale just four days ago, on October 20th. This is, of course, due to expiring music licenses. As such, "DLC packs and Singles for Rocksmith 2014 will be removed from those storefronts over time as well." Ubisoft have put out a schedule for when the delistings will happen.

If you already own Rocksmith 2014, you'll still be able to play it, and to re-download it and its DLCs in perpetuity. It's only new players who are now shut out.

Ongoing support for Rocksmith 2014 ended back in 2020, with the developers then launching Rocksmith Plus last year. Rocksmith Plus continues but it's a subscription service and generally less well-liked by its players due to a smaller track library and no accessibility to user-made tracks. Rocksmith Plus is also exclusive to the Ubisoft+ store, meaning it's not on Steam.

Delistings are a commonplace occurence in the world of digital games, but I still find it a shame everytime. We need a GOG equivalent that revives games that have fallen off sale not for technological reasons, or because no one knows who owns the IP, but for tedious licensing reasons.