Activision's Marvel titles disappearing from PSN, Steam, Xbox Live

Activision's slew of uninspiring, but not altogether awful, Marvel games have vanished from digital sale (not physical sale) on Steam, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Disney owns Marvel now and it seems Activision's time is up, reports GameInformer, with confirmation from Activision (I received "no comment" when I tried official channels today).

So, wave bye bye to last year's Deadpool, which had "enough inspired wackiness to make your first play-through worthwhile", and to 2010's Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, "a generous and witty button-basher". They're the best of the bunch.

Silicon Knights' "best kind of disaster" X-Men: Destiny (2011) even resulted in an apology from the developer's boss Denis Dyack, who said "we are really sorry how that game turned out". Silicon Knights has since closed.

The X-Men Origins: Wolverine film tie-in game (2009) was "unapologetically violent" and also "unapologetically repetitive". So if you're reading this in 2015 [Close! -Ed], and you're just now in a position to buy it, don't. You've got better things to do. After all, you're probably a mutant yourself by now. Go stab something."

There was Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (2008), which was barely worth a weekend rental", Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, "bland to the point of irrelevance", and X-Men: The Official Game (2006), "among the most uninspired beat 'em ups released in several years".

An enviable line-up! And that doesn't include Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which Eurogamer didn't review.

Let's hope Disney, which bought Marvel in 2009, can do better, and judging by Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013) it can. Mind you, that was a joint Warner Bros.-Marvel Studios production, and its success probably has more to do with developer Traveller's Tales and its winning Lego formula than Disney's deft touch.