Warner Bros. Discovery has gone on a delisting spree on Steam and is removing Adult Swim games from the marketplace without any warning. These games have all been published by Adult Swim who are now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. By the look of things, the company will remove all titles from the platform very soon.
Developers had to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to find out what was happening to their work. Matt Kain, who worked on Fist Puncher confirmed the game would leave the platform in the next 60 days. He also says it “makes him sick” to think that purchased games will be removed from users’ libraries as a result.
Studio Bean followed up and confirmed that Soundodger+ would also be delisted in the next 60 days. The studio claims to have reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery to ask if the game can be transferred to another publisher’s Steam account so it can stay active. The studio says the process would take about two minutes to complete and would ensure the game stays around.
However, Warner Bros. Discovery says it would be unfair to transfer one game on the list and ignore all the other titles being delisted. The studio says it would be able to republish the game to Steam but the game would have to be reworked to remove all references to Adult Swim and remove all staff credits.
“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. I’m all for games preservation, and this ain’t it chief.”
Other studios say Warner Bros. Discovery haven’t even sent any legal notice of these delistings. The company is just removing them without warning. Landon Podbielski, creator of Duck Game says he felt “sick and dizzy” at the prospect of his game vanishing from Steam.
“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.”
Of course, these are just a few of the dozen titles which may vanish very soon. The lineup includes some other noteworthy games such as Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, Super House of Dead Ninjas, Pool Panic and more.
At the moment there’s no clear indication of what Warner Bros. Discovery plans on doing with these titles. The company now owns these licenses so it makes sense to sell games to make money. However, developers reckon WB is delisting the games so they don’t have to pay for these licenses.
