Select Danganronpa titles will be removed from the PlayStation Store on PSN starting August 31st and running through September 25th, 2020. Five titles in total will be excised from PlayStation’s digital network, according to an announcement from NIS America.
The news was rolled out over on the NIS America blog, where they revealed that select Danganronpa titles mostly from the PS Vita and one from the PS4 will no longer be available for purchase from NIS America. You can see the list of games and the times in which they will be expunged from the PlayStation Store below.
(All dates written as MM/DD/YYYY)
| Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girl (PS Vita) | 08/31/2020 |
| Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PS Vita) | 09/4/2020 |
| Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (PS Vita) | 09/4/2020 |
| Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS Vita) | 09/25/2020 |
| Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4™) | 09/25/2020 |
Based on the wording and timing, this sounds like a licensing issue.
It could be that Spike decided to shift their distribution partnership elsewhere for the Western release of Danganronpa titles.
Alternatively, NIS America could be involved with renegotiating their contracts with Spike, and typically during that period games with expiring licenses are pulled from storefronts until the contracts are settled.
Then again, it could be Sony wanting to purge certain games from the PlayStation Store, specifically for the PlayStation Vita. It wouldn’t be the first time that they culled titles from their online library.
However, the likely scenario – as pointed out in the comment section on the site – is that Spike Chunsoft will take over publishing duties for North American releases from NIS America, and the Danganronpa titles will likely reappear on the PlayStation Store shortly after the licensing issues get resolved.
Nevertheless, if you’re one of those people who fear that the games may not come back, and if you had plans on picking up the murder-mystery visual novel series for the PlayStation Vita, or Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony for the PlayStation 4, it might be wise to hop on the wagon and grab a copy now before the plug is pulled on the five games at the twilight of summer… that’s assuming they don’t immediately return with Spike at the helm.
(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL)