Warner Bros. Discovery appears to have backed away from its plans to remove more than a dozen games published by the Adult Swim Games label from Steam and digital console stores. WBD now plans to transfer ownership of some of those games back to the indie developers who created them, according to developers who would be affected by the planned removals.
Plans to remove – or “discontinue” – the Adult Swim Games catalog from digital stores, as Warner Bros. Discovery had put it – went public in March and were widely criticized as a cold corporate move that could put some indie games off sale. That strong criticism appears to have played a role in WBD’s revised plan to transfer ownership of the games back to their creators.
News of WBD’s policy reversal was first revealed by developer Owen Deery, who is behind the puzzle-adventure game Small radios, large televisionswhich was originally published by Adult Swim Games in 2016. (Deery also broke news of WBD’s original plan to retire Adult Swim titles in March.) social media platformThat’s what Deery wrote Small radios, large televisions “will not retire”, despite previous statements from WBD that this would be the case. “Ownership and store listings will revert to me,” Deery said.
Developer Landon Podbielski said his multiplayer platform shooter Duck game, another Adult Swim Games published release that is in danger of being removed, will also be returned to its creator. “The game will be returned to Corptron along with the store pages on all platforms,” Podbielski said on X. “It’s not going anywhere.”
Other developers whose games are published by Adult Swim Games confirmed to Polygon that they have received similar communications from Warner Bros. Discovery, and that their titles will be returned to them instead of being removed. WBD told developers it had “heard the feedback and concerns regarding the retirement of titles published under Adult Swim Games,” a developer said in an email to Polygon.
But other developers who have had their work published by Adult Swim Games say they are still waiting to hear from Warner Bros. Discovery. Two developers Polygon spoke to said they never received the original message from WBD in March and have still not heard from the company, despite multiple attempts to contact representatives there. Polygon has contacted Warner Bros. Discovery for comment and will update when the company responds.
The media conglomerate’s planned removal of its Adult Swim Games titles reflected similar cuts to its film and television operations; Warner Bros. Discovery infamously scrapped plans to release nearly complete films Batgirl And Coyote vs. Acme, and removed multiple series from its Max streaming services. Warner Bros. has since licensed some of its scrapped television content to other streamers; animated series Batman: Hooded Crusaderfor example, will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video platform this summer.