“Project X Zone is no longer available for purchase through the Nintendo 3DS eShop as of this past weekend. Update: Well, I’ve heard back, and this is what they had to say: I’ve reached out to Bandai Namco Entertainment America about the matter, and will let you know if I hear anything back. In the meantime, you can still try to track down a physical copy of the game if you’ve got a desire to play more of the saga with Mega Man X, Zero, Tron, and her Servbots in tow.

SEGAbits speculates that the reason it has been pulled could be a matter of rights issues, which they note is “why many song tracks were removed when localized in the west.” A more bizarre bit of reasoning suggests that perhaps there is a desire to instead shift focus to the newly-released sequel instead. More alarming would be that the re-download button for those who had downloaded it previously has been replaced with the message “This software is currently unavailable,” though it appears that this can be circumvented by going to your “Redownloadable Software” list on the Nintendo eShop. I just checked this myself, and aside from a couple of trailers for the game, nothing remains - not even the free demo, which Nintendo still advertises as being available on their website entry for the game.

In a most peculiar bit of news, Nintendo Everything (via SEGAbits) is reporting that Project X Zone (the original, not its recently-released sequel) has been pulled from the Nintendo eShop in North America and Europe without warning.

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