Many Far Cry 4 owners on Xbox One are unable to play the game right now. FC4 has simply vanished from the Xbox Store.
Kotaku notes that you can find Far Cry 4 if you search on Xbox Marketplace. However, many users are unable to purchase it. Players who already own the game can't access it.
"I can launch any digital game but this one," said a Reddit user. "By the way when you go to purchase Far Cry 4 through the xbox store, it says 'unavailable.'"
Other users chimed in on that thread to say they were encountering the problem as well. It just started earlier today. The players affected are from multiple territories including the UK and Australia.
Ubisoft says that the issue is due to the Xbox Store rather than anything they did. They're not exactly sure what the cause of the problem is, though.
"The team are actively investigating the issue this side," wrote Ubisoft community manager Mr_Shade on the company's official forums. "However it's also worth contacting Xbox support - since it appears that the game has been removed from the Store - this has happened for some - please check if it's still available to you - if not, it 'could' be related to that, which MS are investigating too - however as I say, Ubisoft are looking into the issue as a matter of urgency."
What's especially troubling about this bug is that there's no consistent pattern. Some Xbox One owners encounter it, some don't. Country or in-game progress don't seem to matter. That's bound to make Microsoft's and Ubisoft's investigation into the issue a bit harder. Here's hoping they can track down the cause of the bug soon, though. It's a huge inconvenience for Xbox One gamers and yet another embarrassing bug for a big Ubisoft release.
If the bug is simply caused by the game being delisted from the Xbox Store, that's a bit troubling. As Videogamer notes, this raises questions about what happens to an Xbox One game when Microsoft purposefully removes it from sale. Will that mean no one can play it anymore? That's a situation that's bound to happen later in the console's lifespan.
There was some good Far Cry-related news today to balance out the bad. Ubisoft recently surveyed Far Cry 4 players on what they'd like to see in a future game. The details from this survey leaked today and gave us some idea of what Far Cry 5 could be like. Some of Ubisoft's ideas for the next game are strange and kind of awesome.
While we wait to see what Far Cry 5 will be, though, we've still got DLC for Far Cry 4 to look forward to. The Escape from Durgesh Prison add-on will debut next week on all platforms.
