On the Xbox, Microsoft’s currently running a fighting game themed sale. Included in the sale are all the Dead or Alive games. I was itchy enough to get Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, having not played it for ages. I have it on the Playstation but I’m always double dipping digitally.

So I got the game, downloaded it and tried to play.

I got to the character select screen and I noticed that Naotora Li and Mai Shiranui were both MIA. No biggie. I looked in the store and Naotora Li was $7. Tried to find Mai, but weirdly, after searching the hundreds of DLC entries associated with Dead or Alive 5 Last Round I still couldn’t find her.

Exasperated by now, I just used the Xbox Store’s Search function.

dead or alive 5

I got the hits immediately but was puzzled on why the entries had no thumbnail image other than the logo.

It was only when I clicked on them (there were two; Mai as a standalone character and another store entry for the character and some costumes) and looked into the entries that was it shown that the Mai Shiranui DLC has been taken offline since 2019.

dead or alive 5

WTF?

I know it’s definitely due to the licensing deal Koei Tecmo struck with SNK for the game but there’s ZERO warning on the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round page that Mai is unavailable for purchase for new buyers.

As a completist who needs to have every character selectable, that was a deal killer.

I immediately got online, and requested a refund from the Microsoft Store.

Thankfully, I got it without any fuss but it’s still an issue that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. One can easily make the case for deceptive marketing because consumers weren’t informed beforehand that Mai wasn’t available.

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.