A few days ago, we heard rumbles that Quantum Break would be removed from Xbox Game Pass, a story which turned out to be slightly more complicated than what players originally believed.
Here's the current situation, Quantum Break has been (temporarily) removed from all digital stores, in a circumstance which feels very similar to the Alan Wake store removal in 2017.
With Alan Wake, the game was removed, following a shock announcement, due to expired music licenses. The expiration date was seven years after the game launched. In a forum Q&A following the news, Remedy stated that "Alan Wake’s American Nightmare will remain in stores. Remedy negotiated the music licensing for Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, we did not negotiate the licensing for Alan Wake’s licensed music." Similarly, Quantum Break just celebrated its seventh anniversary, which suggests that Microsoft had repeated the same timed limits in the agreements.
Unlike Wake's temporary journey into the night, Quantum Break's departure came and went without warning, although some fans noticed that the game was discounted on the Microsoft Store just prior to the anniversary. Although the studios may also be predicting an easier progression through the paperwork this time as they know there's a path.
Remedy has commented since, reassuring fans that it is just a temporary change, and specifically addressed the loss of the game from Xbox Game Pass. In their tweet, they stated "Don’t worry, Quantum Break will be coming back to Game Pass! It is being temporarily removed due to some licenses that expired that were in the process of being renewed. We will let you know as soon as it is back."
Alan Wake did return to digital marketplaces in October 2018 for PC, with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One (via Backwards Compatability) editions arriving a year later in December 2019.
