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There are fresh fears Warner Bros. Discovery plans to delist all Adult Swim games, including the likes of Pool Panic, Duck Game, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, and Kingsway, within the next two months.
This week, the creator of Small Radios Big Televisions, Owen Deery, tweeted that Warner Bros. Discovery had informed him that his indie game would be retired in the coming weeks. The game, Small Radios Big Televisions, is published by Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary Adult Swim Games.
Deery told Game Developer that Warner Bros. Discovery will pull Small Radios Big Televisions from storefronts in the next 60 days. According to an email sent to Deery, Warner Bros. Discovery said it can no longer support Small Radios Big Televisions due to "internal business changes". IGN has asked Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.
Now, another developer of an Adult Swim Games title has said they were served the same notice, sparking concern that Adult Swim Games' entire slate could fall by the wayside. As spotted by Delisted Games, Matt Kain, one of the original creators of Fist Puncher, took to the game’s Steam page to say Warner Bros. Discovery had been in touch, and expressed their disappointment at the news.
“We've asked that Warner Bros. simply transfer the game to our Steam publisher account so that it can stay active, but so 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,” Kain said. “No, the transfer process is not complicated. It likely takes about two minutes on their end.
“This is incredibly disappointing. I'm not entirely sure what will even happen if the game gets delisted, but it makes me sick to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users' libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which could all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it.”
There are now concerns over video game preservation following Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision. “I feel this needs to be said somewhere but video games are art,” Kain said. “Video games connect us. Video games are important. Video games are part of our cultural heritage and should be preserved.”
“When you're working with purely digital products nothing is going to stay around for very long," Deery added.
Warner Bros. Discovery will likely delist all Adult Swim Games titles within 60 days https://t.co/ovv0Rf5DDqhttps://t.co/7Y1DmtJzmc
List of all titles under Adult Swim Games on Steam: https://t.co/HWp7ThaPhD pic.twitter.com/sormRFRycH
— Wario64 (@Wario64) March 8, 2024
Video game preservation is a hot topic within the industry, but the issue of content removal from digital platforms is top of mind of movie and TV makers, too. Last year, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro backed Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan in championing physical media amid controversial moves by streamers that have seen some films pulled from availability.
In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery was criticized for pulling six HBO Max original movies from the prestige streaming service they were created for. Warner Bros. Discovery also made the shocking decision not to release Batgirl either in theaters or on streaming, even after the Leslie Grace-starring DC film had completed filming. Animated movie Scoob! Holiday Haunt was also scrapped, with Warner Bros. Discovery taking tax write-downs on both. More recently, Warner Bros. Discovery unceremoniously shelved Coyote vs. Acme, much to the shock and anger of the entertainment industry.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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