Skating Classics OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome Disappear from Storefronts, Leaving Fans in the Dark

Additionally, OlliOlli World has been taken down from the US Nintendo Switch store, although it appears to be available in the UK. At the time of writing, both of the vibrant, 2022 release titles are also available to purchase on PlayStation.

Nonetheless, the gradual and discreet disappearance of OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome over the past few days has raised concerns, and even their existence on PlayStation may change swiftly. Yet, the rationale for this remains unclear.

Former Private Division owner Take-Two has been quite secretive in the past few months. Subsequent reports indicated that the development studio behind OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome, Roll7, was dissolved prior to Private Division’s sale, even though Take-Two’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, claimed in a 2024 IGN interview that “we haven’t shut down anything.” In 2023, Zelnick earned $42 million.

Around the same time, Rollerdrome’s developer Anisa Sanusi urged fans to “please pirate it because none of us work at the company that owns [Rollerdrome] anymore,” later clarifying in additional Twitter posts that “the studio I loved working at no longer exists, and my friends and former colleagues were laid off.”

Although Take-Two has yet to disclose the identity of Private Division’s buyer, Bloomberg reports that the titles may soon be taken over by a group of former Annapurna Interactive staff, who resigned in 2024 after a conflict with the owner of Stray.

Other titles under Private Division, including the acclaimed RPG and breakout hit The Outer Worlds, remain accessible on various platforms, as do Roll7 games released by different publishers. Ultimately, the vanishing of OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome serves as a bittersweet reminder that even the most beloved digital titles can disappear when a capricious owner decides to pull them.

Let’s at least remember them fondly: OlliOlli World already feels like 2022’s most essential indie.