Delisted Games, citing various developer, is reporting that the Adult Swim Games subsidiary of Warner Bros. is ceasing operations and will be delisting games currently published by them within the next 60 days.
Delisted Games are speculating that this will affect all games under the label and are reporting that WB is refusing to work with affected developers. Matt Kain Lewandowski, one of the developers of 2013ās Fist Puncher, has stated on Steam Discussions, āSo far they have said no with the reason being that they made the universal decision not to transfer the games back to the original studios and do not have the resources to do so. No, the transfer process is not complicated. It likely takes about 2 minutes on their endā
Matt also says that the games āwill presumably be removed from users’ libraries,ā but that isnāt how itās worked in the past, so Iād be extremely surprised if this was accurate.
Owen Deery, creator of Small Radios Big Televisions, says that WB controls the sale price, so he canāt mark his game down before its delisting. Instead, he has made the game available for free on the developerās website.
![Small Radio Big Television machinery](https://www.destructoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Screen_SmallRadio.jpg?w=640&resize=640%2C360)
According to the developers, they have been told that the delistings are due to ābusiness changes.ā It should be noted that Adult Swim Games hasnāt really been active since at least 2020. However, in their time, they published games such as Double Fineās Headlander, Duck Game, and Super House of Dead Ninjas. Other games like Rainworld and Jazzpunk have had the publishing rights returned to the developer. Unfortunately, for any developer who didnāt move away from Adult Swim, it seems like it will be difficult to save the listing.
WB has been in headlines a lot recently for its anti-creative moves. Not long ago, there was an outcry against the companyās decision to shelve the reportedly complete film Coyote vs. Acme for tax purposes. In recent video game industry news, they made the baffling decision to double-down on live service games despite the relative failure of Suicide Squad. They also recently announced the decision to shutter online video producer Rooster Teeth.
Iām at a bit of a loss for words right now. I already considered WB to be one of the worst publishers, not just in terms of quality but also for game preservation due to their unwillingness to re-release much of the back catalog of Midway/Williams/Atari Games. I never predicted how much worse it would get. In the early ā10s when they started publishing alternative games, it seemed like they were on track to be competition for Devolver Digital in terms of quirky small-budget style. But I suppose yesterdayās optimism sometimes becomes the devilās pants.
In the meantime, if you are interested in any of Adult Swim Gamesā back catalog on Steam, you might want to act now. As mentioned, WB is in control of any discounts, and they donāt seem interested in hosting a last-chance sale. Some developers will be able to make their games available elsewhere or perhaps find a way to relist themselves, but nothing is guaranteed.
Published: Mar 8, 2024 11:03 am