Original Crysis suddenly vanishes on Steam in another blow to preservation

In another frustrating blow to videogame preservation, Crytek's classic first-person shooter, Crysis, is no longer available to purchase on Steam. While the original was delisted in 2021, you could still purchase it via the Crysis Maximum Edition bundle, which included the game's standalone expansion, Crysis Warhead. However, that bundle has now been removed as well.

Although you can still see the Steam store page for Crysis Maximum Edition on search engine results pages, clicking through redirects to Steam's homepage. And while the standalone version of the original game is technically still accessible if you use a direct URL, you're only met with a "Crysis is no longer available on the Steam store" message, and a note that it's available as part of an EA Play subscription. Oddly, the Crysis Warhead DLC expansion is still available to purchase on Steam on its own, and is actually currently discounted at $4.99 / £4.49.

So yes, the original game has completely disappeared from Steam, but Crysis Remastered is still listed on Valve's platform along with its remastered sequels, Crysis 2 and 3. Thankfully, it's readily available if you still want to test the famous benchmark of 'But does it run Crysis?' when your 2007 nostalgia kicks in. The remaster features some persistent bugs and changes to the lighting that some fans weren't too happy with, but even so, we still reckon Crysis Remastered is one of the best FPS games on PC.

While pulling the original Crysis from the biggest PC games storefront in the world is a major inconvenience to our collective gaming libraries - and games preservation in general - it is worth noting that you can still buy the original standalone Crysis from GOG, or the EA Store.

Even if it is available elsewhere (for now), the quiet delisting of Crysis is yet another example of how vulnerable digital releases are in the world of videogames. We don't know exactly why Crysis Maximum Edition was pulled now of all times, but if even one of PC gaming's most iconic shooters can quietly disappear from the industry's largest storefront without fanfare, then nothing's really safe out there in the wild west of digital gaming.

If you're a fan of the sci-fi warfare in Crysis, then you might also like some of our picks for the best war games of all time, or if you're just craving a good campaign, then why not check out our list of the best single-player games on PC.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.