Money. They could do a sale or had the option to simply tell possible buyers about this during the winter sale. But why do so if you can use FOMO to get some last minute full price sales?

I am most annoyed by the timing. Telling people on the 17th that it will be gone on the 20th? Feels like an intentionally short time window.
There are most certainly people that would have loved to buy it, but the next paycheck is coming in after it is gone.

Maybe I am wrong and they simply accepted a horrible non-disclosure deal after being bought by NetEase, but it feels bad no matter how you look at it.

Yes why no final sale??

Already on January 21, 2023, apparently we were deceived.

I've got very little respect for such people who wouldn't even put their game on sale before delisting the game off digital stores with a 3-4 day window. I would have bought the game had they kept the courtesy of telling it a couple days before when it was on sale. D**k move and disrespect for everyone involved as well. Entire game just wiped off from existence. Hope this would get republished someday by a new distributor/publisher.