30-year-old Transport Tycoon Deluxe is suddenly on Steam and GOG, but it gets in the way of free fan recreation OpenTTD

Transport Tycoon Deluxe is one of the most beloved city-building games to this day, and with good reason. The 1995 expansion to developer Chris Sawyer's original (from the year prior) expands and upgrades on it in significant ways, and its simulation of managing transport networks across a vast map is so strong that it remains a go-to recommendation in 2026. Out of nowhere, Atari has suddenly dropped a port of it on both Steam and GOG, making it much more accessible - however, in doing so, it's made it slightly harder to grab the fan-made, free-to-play recreation, OpenTTD, which you'll often hear cited as the best way to play.

The year is 1950, and you've been given £100,000 and 100 years to build the ultimate transit empire. Transport Tycoon Deluxe lets you lay down roads and rail networks, and to plan out bus, train, shipping, and air routes, all with the goal of outpacing your rivals and making as much money as possible by the end of the century. Back in November 2024, Atari bought the rights to Transport Tycoon from Sawyer, stating that it had a "long-term plan to preserve and expand this classic sim."

Now, almost out of nowhere, it's delivered on that intent, launching an updated port of Transport Tycoon Deluxe on both Steam and GOG, priced at $10 / £8.50. You'll certainly get your money's worth from it, so there's no issue there. However, fans were quick to spot that on GOG you are now required to own this new, paid version of the game if you wish to add the free-to-play OpenTTD to your account. While existing owners are not affected, anyone who discovers OpenTTD in the future will have to buy this new port to access it.

For those out of the loop, OpenTTD is an open-source recreation that was modelled after the original game. It has long been available for free and has been dramatically updated over many years, including a wide range of quality-of-life improvements and enhanced features. It offers much bigger maps, and stable multiplayer for up to 255 players with dedicated server support. There are new buildings, longer bridges, more configuration options, full drag-and-drop support, a quick cost estimation toggle, and much more. In modern times, it's widely considered the definitive way to play.

At the time of writing, the OpenTTD team has not yet made a statement via its official website, but a message on the Github page where its source code is available to view suggests this was a deliberate change. "OpenTTD has been available on the Steam store for the past five years. During that time, we've built up an incredible base, attracting lots of new players to the game. Starting today, however, OpenTTD will no longer be directly available as a standalone game on Steam. It can instead be obtained as part of a bundle alongside the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe, which has been re-released by Atari." The same change applies to GOG.

It explains that if you already own OpenTTD on either platform, you'll continue to receive future game updates and it will remain available in your library to re-download. New players, however, will need to purchase Atari's new version in order to access OpenTTD on Steam and GOG. At the time of writing, I was still able to add OpenTTD to my Steam library, so you might be able to sneak in and grab it for free, if you're quick. It will also remain available for download directly from the OpenTTD website.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe is out now on Steam and GOG, priced at $10 / £8.50. If you've got a hankering to revisit Chris Sawyer's original and see how it compares to the modern twist that OpenTTD brings to the table, it's never been easier to do so. If you'd rather just dip into the latter, you might need to look outside of Steam and GOG moving forward.