More developers have confirmed that they have been told by Warner Bros. Discovery that their games will imminently be delisted from digital storefronts. Soundodger+ and Fist Puncher are both due to vanish, following in the footsteps of puzzle game Small Radios Big Televisions, whose developer announced its imminent delisting earlier this week and released the game for free in response.
All of these games were published by Adult Swim Games, who are now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It increasingly seems likely that all Adult Swim games are going to be delisted – although as of right now, most developers say they have not been contacted.
Matt Kain, one of the developers of Fist Puncher, confirmed that Warner Bros. were delisting the game in an update on Steam.
“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. No, the transfer process is not complicated. It likely takes about 2 minutes on their end.”
Studio Bean confirmed that the Soundodger+ would be delisted in the next 60 days. “I sent [Warner Bros.] the Steam Transfer link, explained that it takes 3 clicks, and they still refused, claiming it would only be fair to transfer no one’s games since they can’t do them all,” the developer tweeted.
“They are allowing me to republish to Steam (with 0 reviews and 0 wishlists), as long as I remove any and all mention of Adult Swim in the game, including team members in the credits,” he added. “I’m all for games preservation, and this ain’t it chief.”
Soundodger+ will apparently remain available via Itch.
These announcements have understandably caused panic among some other developers whose games were published by Adult Swim, even if they haven’t yet been sent any legal notice of delisting.
Landon Podbielski, creator of Duck Game, tweeted that he hadn’t heard anything yet but that he felt “sick and dizzy” at the prospect.
“Haven’t gotten any word about duck game being delisted yet but i’m sure it’s coming. feeling sick and dizzy about it and don’t know what to say. so many good people and games,” he wrote on Xitter.
Podbielski later thanked people for their support, but asked that they not rush to buy the game as the delisting wasn’t confirmed “and in any case I’m not going to let it kill duck game. I own the rights and still plan to update the game no matter what.”
Double Fine’s Lee Petty, director on Adult Swim-published metroidvania Headlander, wrote on Xitter that, “Delisting things from a digital storefront is just plain terrible. It bums me out that it could happen to Headlander, but think of the impact it has on small developers. This could really mess up their livelihoods.”
Mr. Podunkian, who is currently working on Stardew-like Sunkissed City, confirmed that he has not been contacted yet.
“I haven’t been reached out to about anything. WASTED is a little tricky because of music licensing, but if I do get any correspondence, I might as well spend a few weeks to put out a source-port of ESCAPE FROM PUPPY DEATH FACTORY for free somewhere,” he wrote
Likewise, John Gottschalk, designer of Westerados: Double Barrelled at Ostrich Banditos, responded to tweets about the delisting to say that “it sucks to learn your game is going offline like this”
“We’re trying to get it transferred from Warner, but we’ll have to see what’s possible. Anyone with games IP & publishing rights experience in the Netherlands, who has any tips, get in touch!”
Adult Swim Games published a lot of games during their existence, but several of their best known are no longer published by them, and therefore are at seemingly no risk of delisting. The developers of Rain World and Volgarr the Viking both publicly stated that their games would not be delisted, for example. Other games, such as Battle Chef Brigade and Death’s Gambit, are also likely at no risk, though their developers haven’t commented publicly.
There are many other games that are at possible risk, however, including Desync, Kingsway, Mega Coin Squad, Obllitus, Pool Panic, Rick And Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, Rise & Shine, Super House Of Dead Ninjas, Super Puzzle Platformer, Traverser, and Zenzizenzic. Some developers of these games have publicly confirmed that they have not yet been contacted, but many more are long-defunct, with shuttered official websites and social media accounts that have not been updated in years.
Mega Coin Squad, for example, was developed by Big Pixel Studios, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warner Media – now Warner Bros. Discovery – and was shuttered in 2020, costing 40 people their jobs. If Warner Bros. Discovery is now determined to delist Mega Coin Squad, there is simply no one left to advocate for its transfer or preservation.
Even if weeks pass and no other developers mentioned here are contacted by Warner Bros. Discovery, and their games remain online, this whole mess is still a travesty. Piracy is no solution since piracy doesn’t support developers whose livelihoods might be impacted by games being delisted. Even being allowed to re-list a game on a new store page is little comfort given the loss of Steam reviews will sink a game, and the requirement to remove Adult Swim logos requires updating source files that some of these developers may no longer be able to access.
None of these developers chose to work with Warner Bros. Discovery – their publishing contracts have been hoovered up as one corporate behemoth swallowed or merged with another – but given the option, why would any creative ever work with Warner Bros. ever again, given they seem to be deleting their work across games, film and television?
