Lost Cities disappearance explained

We reported earlier this month that Lost Cities had mysteriously disappeared from Xbox Live Arcade as recently as early March. We surmised at the time that the rights to the game could have been transferred to Activision during the merger with Vivendi (then parent of developer Sierra). As it turns out, according to Official Xbox Magazine (via GamerBytes), the Lost Cities license reverted back to the original licensor after the merger. Without the license to the Lost Cities brand, Activision can no longer sell it. So, that's it.

Incidentally, if you downloaded the trial version of Lost Cities before, you can still re-download it via your download history. The full version is inaccessible though, so you'll have to find someone who already has it if you want to play. Or you could always just pick up the card game and play it face-to-face if you think you can handle that kind of intensity.