Summary
Developers of certainAdult Swim Gamestitles have said Warner Bros.' decision to delist their titles has been seemingly reversed. This past March, parent companyWarner Bros. Discoveryhad shut down the production of several nearly completed films, which earned a lot of backlash. The company was seemingly going to shut down some of its video game offerings as well, with many of them being under the Adult Swim Games label.
The developers of these indie games revealed that 21 Adult Swim Games were at risk of being digitally delisted, includingDuck Game,Pool Panic,Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, and many more. Some of these titles had long shelf lives, with the developers supporting these indie games with years of post-launch community-driven updates. Plans to retire these games were criticized almost immediately, and it appears that Warner Bros. Discovery is walking back on that decision, according to some of the developers of these games.
The news of this reversal was first revealed by Owen Deery, the owner ofindie puzzle-adventure gameSmall Radios Big Televisions, which was first published by Adult Swim Games in 2016. In a new post on his Twitter account, he statesSmall Radios Big Televisions"will not be ‘retired’," contrary to his previous announcement that Warner Bros. Discovery would be digitally delisted. Moreover, ownership and store listings will be returned to Deery as well.
Another developer, Landon Podbielski, who worked on themultiplayer platform shooterDuck Game, confirmed on Twitter that his game was similarly “safe,” and that he received an email about howDuck Game’s ownership would be returned to Corptron, along with its store pages on all platforms. Polygon had reached out to a number of other developers who were affected by Warner Bros. Discovery’s delisting announcement, confirming that they received similar emails about their titles' ownership rights being transferred to them instead of being delisted.
Some, But Not All Adult Swim Games Are Safe from Delisting
According to Polygon, however, there are some Adult Swim Games developers waiting for further communication from Warner Bros. Discovery. Two developers that spoke with Polygon said they never received the original delisting message from Warner Bros. Discovery back in March, and that they still haven’t heard back from the company regarding the status of their games, despite multiple attempts to reach out to the company.
While not all the games are at risk,some titles published by Adult Swim Games could still be delisted. Fans will just need to wait and see if these games will have their ownership returned to their original developers as well.
