Xbox quietly yoinks hit game from our libraries

Xbox has removed a game from players’ libraries after it was made free last month.

Thanks to the likes of Xbox Game Pass and free-to-play live service titles, getting games at little to no cost is a more common occurrence these days.

If you’re a gamer on a budget, there are plenty of free and cheap choices for you to find on your game store of choice.

So long as you’re happy with a digital copy.

Hyperkin's new "The Competitor" Xbox controller looks pretty familiar.

Now, Xbox users are getting a game in their library revoked after it was made free last month.

The game in question is Alan Wake Remastered, which was inadvertently made free last month for a short time if users redeemed a free trial of Alan Wake 2.

At first, it seemed like a great marketing opportunity. Alan Wake 2 isn’t a sequel you can play without context of the first game, so fully including the first game in this trial would be a great way to catch people up.

Alas, it was a mistake according to Xbox, which has started to remove the free copies from players’ libraries.

If you claimed Alan Wake Remastered for free over a month ago on Xbox Store, it looks like they finally revoked it due to an error pic.twitter.com/jYpWqnaPHp

— Wario64 (@Wario64) March 13, 2025

The message Xbox players received can be read below:

“You recently acquired a version of Alan Wake Remastered that was not intended to be available. Therefore we are cancelling your order, refunding any payments made, and removing it from your 'My games & apps' list. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

Considering it was a clear mistake, it makes sense that Xbox would revoke access to this game. Still, there was hope that Xbox would honour the error and allow people to keep the game.

It’s a shame for anyone who had started to play the game but never got round to finishing it, as Alan Wake is one of the best third-person shooters of all time.

The remaster comes with the base game and all of its DLC, along with a few extra goodies.

But on the plus side, Alan Wake Remastered can go quite cheap nowadays during sales. We’d certainly recommend picking it up along with its sequel at some point.