Before the days of cinematic universes and constant cameos, superhero media was like the Wild West—for better or for worse. A relic of this bygone era is the catalog of licensed superhero games, including one that’s seen a price hike as a result of the recent Deadpool & Wolverine movie.
High Moon Studios’ 2013 action game Deadpool, starring the titular wisecracking anti-hero, was one such piece of superhero media freed from the fetters of big studio oversight. It likely would have gone down as yet another of the seemingly endless stream of irreverent, stylish hack-and-slashes the seventh generation gave us, if not for the curious tale of its licensing.
Less than a year after the game’s initial release, Activision’s license to publish Marvel games expired, and Deadpool was pulled from all digital retailers. For all intents and purposes, this seemed to seal the game’s fate as a lost seventh-gen oddity—if not for the fact that it was then remastered in 2015 for the PS4 and Xbox One to promote the first Deadpool movie.
In yet another shocking plot twist, it was then swiftly delisted once again and hasn’t been seen since. This has made physical copies of the game a particular prize among seventh-gen enthusiasts, who are increasingly turning to physical media as digital game stores from that era continue to shutter.
Third-party resellers offered the game for relatively cheap as recently as a few weeks ago—but then summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine came along. With interest in the character newly stoked, prices over $100 have been spotted on reselling sites like eBay, with the most egregious reaching a height of $140 for a PS3 game that’s over a decade old. It feels like a bad joke, which actually makes it perfect for Deadpool.
Even if you missed the chance to play this solidly okay game at a reasonable price point, the character’s spot in the gaming world clearly isn’t going anywhere. Grab your cheeky Deadpool controller and get to it!
