GTA: Vice City Removed from Steam Over Music Licensing

By Catherine Cai
published

You'll notice that Vice City is no longer on Steam...

If you were looking to catch up on playing the past Grand Theft Auto games after this week's GTA V hype-a-thon, you'll notice that Vice City is conspicuously missing from Steam.

It's no accident. According to Rockstar, the game was removed due to some licensing issues. “Due to some music licensing issues, we’ve had to temporarily remove Vice City PC from digital stores. We’ll make it available again as soon as possible," stated the developer.

The song in question that caused the "licensing issue" was apparently Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something", featured on Vice City's in-game radio station Fever 105. For some reason or another, Sony Music Entertainment blocked the content over copyright issues.

Hopefully, Vice City is restored to Steam rather soon. For those anxious about whether or not this will affect the iOS version, Rockstar's confirmed that the licensing issue won't delay Vice City's release on the App Store.

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26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • abbadon_34
    Greddy bastards ! Have you heard of public domian ???
    Reply
  • army_ant7
    I'm wondering why didn't Rockstar get the license for the song? I bet their legal department must've known that they had to get a license for that song. Maybe something just happened when they were making the game, the memo to do so was lost. That or they were really trying to get a "free ride" (I hope this isn't the case. I'm thinking now that instead of removing the song altogether (which they can't on copies already sold), they'd just have to properly buy a license.
    Reply
  • army_ant7
    abbadon_34Greddy bastards ! Have you heard of public domian ???Sorry to say, but for a copyright for songs and movies (at least) to expire, it takes 75 years IIRC. MJ wasn't even born yet in the year 1937.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    75 years?! That assures 100% that if you like a music, you wont get it for free in your lifetime (assuming it was released when you were young).

    Humans are awsome, thx got im a cat.. shit, now everybody knows.

    On anothe side, they didnt have a problem with it before when i came on th PC? Or did they just catch up now with the problem?
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    Scumbag "Sony Music Entertainment": game's out for 10 years, decides to take action only now.
    Reply
  • DSpider
    Sony is piggybacking on a dead singers' music. Now that's just low...

    MJ died 3 years ago and they're still racking in the dough after his demise. Same thing with Whitney Houston or even Elvis. Wtf is wrong with the music industry?
    Reply
  • LachlanT
    It's odd that only Wanna be startin' something is what Sony is against when Billie Jean is in Vice City too.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    amk-aka-PhantomScumbag "Sony Music Entertainment": game's out for 10 years, decides to take action only now.
    Patent and copyright infringement notices are best served cold. Better ROI that way.
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    but why now? I've had the game on steam for a few years - with music.

    tip though - the steam version didn't work when I bought it - you had to download some files to your documents folder on the harddrive and use a cracked exe back then. So maybe it's a good thing it's gone.
    Reply
  • waxdart
    I'm going to pirate the game; but buy the song. That will show'em....

    /does neither.
    Reply