Warner Bros. is taking numerous games from publisher Adult Swim Games off the market.
The games from publisher Adult Swim Games, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, seem to be gradually disappearing from all digital stores. The first developers were contacted and informed that their games were “being retired.”
Adult Swim: Games disappear from Steam
It is currently not officially known whether all games from publisher Adult Swim will initially disappear from digital stores. On Steam it is very likely Hit 16 games. So far, only a few developers have received a message from Warner Bros. about their game’s ending.
Which games are affected? The first hit was the puzzle game Small Radios Big Televisions from the Canadian developer Owen Deerywhich now offers the game as a free download.
A short time later Matt Kain piped updeveloper of Beat’em’Up Fist Puncher: He was told his game would in the next 60 days removed from Steam.
In a thread in Ars Technica Forum Cain continues:
This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will likely be removed from users’ libraries. Our community and players have experienced over ten years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam Achievements, Steam Cards, etc., all of which will be lost.
The rhythm game Soundodger+, like the developer, is also affected about X, formerly Twitter, announced. This studio also received a 60-day notice, and the post also stated that Warner Bros was not willing to hand over ownership of the Steam site to the developer.
According to developers, games could be saved “with three clicks.”
In the X post mentioned above, the developer of Soundoger+ explains:
I have you [Warner Bros.] sent the Steam transfer link and explained that it takes three clicks and they still refused, saying it was only fair not to transfer anyone’s games since they [Warner Bros.] not everyone can take over.
Matt Kain also got the same answer, as he explains in his forum post. The only thing left for the affected developers is the games to publish it a second time. This means no reviews or community on Steam and players may have to pay again.
What’s going on at Warner Bros.?
Just last week the… Closure of the gaming and animation studio Rooster Teeth announced, now comes the end of the games from Adult Swim Games.
Publisher Adult Swim hasn’t released a new game since 2020 and Warner Bros. isn’t particularly squeamish about parting with even major investments. For example, the $90 million Batgirl film simply ended up in the trash. A similar fate befell the film projects Coyote vs. Acme and Scoob! Holiday Haunt. The discontinuation of the projects also had, among other things, tax advantages for Warner.
