‘Soulcalibur 2 HD’ has been delisted from the Microsoft Store

The remaster of the beloved fighting game classic, Soulcalibur 2 HD, has recently been delisted from the Microsoft Store.

The delisting was spotted by John Cartwright on Twitter and later reported on by VG247. The original Soulcalibur, which received an Xbox Live Arcade port in 2008, has also been delisted, however, this happened some time ago. It’s disappointing to see their removal given Microsoft’s stronger commitment to a robust backwards compatibility service compared to Sony and Nintendo.

There hasn’t been a concrete justification for the delisting. It could be due to character licensing for Spawn, who stars as the guest character for the Xbox version of Soulcalibur 2, but it’s pure speculation at the time of publication. It’s worth noting that Soulcalibur 4 and 5 aren’t included as backwards compatible titles either, meaning that 2018’s Soulcalibur 6 is now the only entry that’s readily available and playable on current Xbox systems.

Although the titles are now unavailable to purchase via the Microsoft Store, those who already own them can still download and play them. Codes for Soulcalibur 2 HD also appear to work, so there is at least one alternative for anyone desperate to get their hands on that specific version of the game.

An optimistic view of these delistings could point to some kind of Soulcalibur collection coming in the near future, although there’s currently no confirmation regarding one. It’s also unknown whether or not re-releases of the game would include prior guest characters, which would sometimes vary depending on what version of the game the player had. For example, the PlayStation 2 version of Soulcalibur 2 featured Tekken’s Heihachi instead of Spawn, while the GameCube version allowed players to use Link from The Legend of Zelda.

The delisted pages for both titles can be seen here and here.

In other news, Warcraft 3: Reforged news is coming in June.