A surprise announcement just broke early this morning as developer Night School Studio began sending out the below message (as captured by ImageDehoster on reddit) to owners of OXENFREE on itch.io. While existing owners will have until October 1st to download the game from itch.io, the title has already been removed from sale on the platform.
Night School Studio has sent you a message about Oxenfree
OXENFREE will no longer be available on itch.io beginning October 1, 2024. If you have already downloaded the game, you’ll be able to keep it and continue to play from your downloaded files. If you have not already done so, you can download files until October 1, 2024 to keep the game. Everyone who worked on OXENFREE deeply appreciates the support from our community over the past eight years and we hope to see you on another service or timeline soon. Thank you!
If you have questions or need additional support for OXENFREE, please visit our support website.
Night School Studio Announcement – September 08, 2024
The decision behind the move is uncertain and discussion in the reddit post puts forth plenty of valid and not-so-valid theories. While it’s easy to jump at the Netflix connection and blame a streaming megacorp for the move, the game so far remains available on numerous other platforms including DRM-free purveyor GOG.com. There’s also the angle that Night School Studio has some issue with itch.io or is leaving the platform entirely and it somehow is removing the ability to re-download past purchases.
We may never know the reasoning behind this one — or we may soon find out if the game begins disappearing from other platforms — but if you do happen to own it on itch.io, might as well grab it while you can before October 1st. Thanks to TJF588 for submitting this one to the site, we’ve added the date to the Watch List calendar.