Godus
Image: 22Cans

22Cans has announced that it has pulled Godus and Godus Wars from the Steam storefront, with the studio claiming in a statement that the decision was the result of an impending update to Amazon Web Services that would impact the studio's "ability to serve necessary game files to new users" (thanks PCGamer for the spot!).

Originally released in Steam Early Access in 2013 after raising £526,563 on Kickstarter, Godus was meant to be its creator Peter Molyneux's spectacular return to the god gaming genre that he had helped to create but quickly ended up becoming the source of much controversy after a series of broken promises and a lack of updates. Most famously, Molyneux had promised the winner of his 2012 mobile game Curiosity - What's Inside the Cube? the opportunity to become a god of the game dictating its rules and sharing in its success, but eventually went back on this after the title turned out to be a commercial failure.

In 2016, 22Cans hoped to restore some confidence in the project by gifting a "free" DLC to owners of Godus called Godus Wars (which was also available for new players to buy for £10.99), but this only ended up stoking the flames further after players discovered the existence of a premium microtransaction inside the Early Access game containing a new continent being sold for £4.99. 22Cans removed this one day later after the inevitable backlash, but it did little to change the perception surrounding the game.

Here is the statement 22Cans issued on Steam about the removal of Godus and Godus Wars:

"22cans would like to share important news regarding our games, Godus and Godus Wars. Regrettably, due to an upcoming technical change to Amazon Web Services, affecting our ability to serve necessary game files to new users, these titles are to be withdrawn from the Steam store. Please be assured that existing players can continue to enjoy these games without interruption.

"We sincerely appreciate the incredible support from our players over the past decade and extend our heartfelt thanks to you all."

As stated above, if you already own these games and for some reason want to boot them up, you still can. This just means that they are now unavailable to buy from the digital storefront.

[source store.steampowered.com, via pcgamer.com]