The title is no longer available for purchase through the Valve portal, but it is all because the contract with Windows has expired.
Rockstar has confirmed the reason that has led to Grand Theft Auto IV being no longer available through Steam, Valve's PC video game portal, where it can no longer be purchased in any way. According to the statement issued to The Verge, Microsoft's support for Games for Windows Live has expired.
Rockstar Games already plans other options to sell GTA IV
Although people who have bought the game can continue to run it from the Steam launcher, it cannot be “added to the cart” and will continue to be so until Rockstar confirms the new commercial use strategy of the license, from which they could not earn revenue economic in this interval – initiated on January 9 – because the contract with Games for Windows Live had expired could not generate keys (redemption keys) of the game to the seller; in this case Steam, which provides the game to the consumer.
Current status of the page dedicated to GTA IV on Steam
The beginning of the end of Games for Windows Live by Microsoft dates back to 2013, when all existing contracts were gradually expiring, which strengthened the relationship between chains such as Steam to Redmond's own form, which is what He was in charge of supplying these digital units. Rockstar, owner of intellectual property, can now explore other ways-
“With Microsoft without supporting Games for Windows Live, it is not possible to generate additional keys to continue selling the current version of the game,” which does not have many songs compared to the original version, also due to a licensing conflict. “But we are studying other options to distribute GTA IV for PC; We will share more information as soon as we can, ”they conclude.
GTA IV is one of the biggest hits of Rockstar in its history, only behind works such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V. Until November 2012, the last moment of which there are official data on the sale of the title, Grand Theft Auto IV added more than 25 million units on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.