Did Suda51 hint at Shadows of the Damned’s delisting with a moment in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes? While he definitely sets up a return to the game’s universe — with Garcia Hotspur’s apparent dying breath he frees his demon sidekick, Johnson, turning him into the shackled hero, Eight Hearts — the cutscene and ensuing dialog with Travis Touchdown point to something much bigger than the original game.
Now that developer Grasshopper Manufacture’s decade-long publishing deal with Electronic Arts has ended, it’s possible that the original Shadows of the Damned will see an updated re-release ahead of an eventual sequel. It’s a tantalizing teaser for fans of the cult classic but for our purposes the real news is that the original game is no longer available to buy digitally.
The Xbox 360 version of Shadows of the Damned, which was also backward compatible on Xbox One, has very recently been delisted. It was just included in a “Shocktober in Summer” promotion on Xbox.com but the game had already been removed from sale before the promo ended on June 30th. Currently, it’s only available to play on Xbox One through The Vault on EA’s subscription service, EA Access, but it may be removed there in time.
Fortunately, the game did get a retail release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but prices have been on the rise and the number of copies out there seems low. I’m not expecting a re-listing on this one as there’s too much work involved to bring only a single version of the game back online. A remaster seems fairly likely at this point, with the work on a new 3D engine and hi-res assets leading into development of a sequel.
I’ll have a page up on the site soon for the original Xbox 360/Xbox One edition. Thanks to @OldMario for pointing out the news.