[shangaslammi]

The article claims incorrectly that the game had 18 single-player missions. The FAQ linked from the article is for the game "Order of War". "Order of War: Challenge" is a completely separate, multi-player-only game that had its servers shut down and was removed from Steam. The original "Order of War" is still available (http://store.steampowered.com/app/34600/).

In addition, the "Challenge" add-on was given free to those who bought the original game.

This is a complete non-issue as far as Steam is concerned (the complaint about publishers shutting down multi-player servers is certainly valid). There is nothing that you could do with the game even if you still had it in your Steam library.

[mandelbulb]

The issue at hand is that Steam removed something from the users library. Usually people consider anything on his computer to be his property, no matter at what cost it was purchased. While I don't know whether that was as claimed the first instance of content removal or whether under the terms of service any content is only leased it is certainly a wake up call. It is especially concerning if you bought your games for a very similar price as at a store.

So, in short, the issue is that Steam apparently has the right to remove content from their clients' libraries.

[Qualman]

If you were Valve, what would you do? Without the servers, the game is completely useless, and they probably recognized that fact. Being that this is the first time in 9+ years that they have done this, and only in this particular circumstance where--beyond their control--a game is rendered disabled, I believe there is not much reason to fear them removing your games at random.

[Bjartr]

I'm confused, does the change remove the game's listing from Steam when not installed, remove only the listing if it is installed, or silently uninstall it if it is installed?

The first is reasonable, the second is iffy and would more likely be a technical limitation than a explicit choice on Valve's part, the third scenario is the problematic one.

[aerique]

I don't know this game, but if for example Blizzard would shut down the World of Warcraft servers you could still play it on private servers. Same for a lot of other MMOs that do not have their official server anymore like Star Wars Galaxies and Earth & Beyond. People can still play these on private and / or emulated servers.

[hatu]

Don't you need some kind of a cracked version of the game for that? I don't know if you can play on private servers with a Steam version of a game anyway.

[baby]

private servers on WoW are illegal, and you might have to downgrade to be able to join one.

[K0nserv]

It is a non issue for Steam, as such they have no ground to remove the game from users library.

[jstelly]

I just checked and steam lets me re-install it if I want to.

[Svip]

Maybe they were requested to remove it by Square Enix?