Several developers claim they have regained control of their indie titles after Warner Bros. seemingly decided to reconsider its decision to delist all Adult Swim Games.
Fire Face, a one-man game development company run by Owen Deery, announced in March that he received word that his game Small Radios Big Televisions, released in November 2016 under Adult Swim’s banner, was slated for removal. Warner Bros., now the owner of Adult Swim, informed Deery and many other indie devs that their game would soon vanish from digital shelves due to “business changes.”
The decision, which would affect 21 separate titles, was made without any explanation. Moreover, when developers sought to regain ownership, Warner Bros. declined, citing resource constraints.
In response, Deery opted to create the PC version of his game for free on his website, countering Warner Bros.’s move to delist it. But now, despite Warner Bros.’s statement that the games would disappear from Steam within 60 days, that period has passed, and all 21 Adult Swim Games remain available for purchase.
Moreover, Deery recently shared on X that Warner Bros. had reversed its decision, granting him control over the game once again. He said, “Update – game will not be ‘retired. Ownership and store listings will return to me.”
Similar news has been reported by other indie developers. Landon Podbielski, the developer behind Duck Game, assured fans that the game was “safe,” stating, “More details soon but the email from Warner finally came. The game is being returned to Corptron along with its store pages on all platforms. It’s not going anywhere. Thank you everyone, hoping everyone else got the same email.”
Super Mega Team, the studio behind Rise & Shine, echoed this sentiment, confirming that they received a similar email, stating, “We got the same email too for Rise & Shine! Glad they are doing the right thing.”
Adult Swim Games, established in 2005, underwent restructuring by its parent company in late 2020, essentially ceasing its operations. While they published notable titles like Robot Unicorn Attack, Jazzpunk, and Westerado: Double Barreled, among others, Adult Swim did not seem to claim intellectual property rights to the games they published. However, they did control the Steam store pages, and delisting them would have erased years of accumulated Steam reviews, forcing developers to rebuild their presence within the marketplace.
Well, Warner Bros. has not yet commented on the initial ruling or the subsequent reversal, but it indeed is a good news for the fans.
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