But the problem is usually much larger where a game requires you to login to play even the single player component but is unable to do so with entire services going down, such as gamespy or others, more on that here:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DefunctOnlineVideoGames

The list grows ever larger and even some online game news publications have their own lists, small example below:

https://kotaku.com/dead-games-2023-delisted-servers-offline-1850083031

There’s quite a few others, but I do agree with the point that there should be an aggregate for all of these, that could be presented as a universal list that hopefully stops growing in the coming years.

There’s also the problem of “going digital”. Previously you’d have at least the physical disks/mediums of the game in your possession but with the ever growing digital only culture, the moment a game gets delisted and you can no longer download it, that is it. Cult classic or not.

P.S - Nintendo seems to have liked your Buddhist idea of impermanence and has done that to Super Mario 35, existed for a total of 6 months. Personally, I would’ve liked to at least try it seeing how it hasn’t been all that long ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros._35

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca -2 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the lists! Delistedgames seems to focus more on games that aren't sold anymore rather than shutdown. For example, they list Grand Theft Auto IV as a delisted game because they only sell Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition now.

Weird that TVTropes seems to have a better list of games that not only aren't sold anymore but don't work even if you bought them. It's an interesting list. I feel bad for all the people who played Family Guy Online for the 8 months it existed in 2012!

The Kotaku list is nice too but they do note that some of the games are still playable single player. It's only the online multiplayer that's not going to work since the servers are shutting down. I'm not sure how I feel about that one. Is it still killing a game if single player modes still work?