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Warner Bros. is now erasing games as it plans to delist Adult Swim-published titles (www.polygon.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

199 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Warner Bros. Discovery is telling developers it plans to start “retiring” games published by its Adult Swim Games label, game makers who worked with the publisher tell Polygon. At least three games are under threat of being removed from Steam and other digital stores, with the fate of other games published by Adult Swim unclear.

The media conglomerate’s planned removal of those games echoes cuts from its film and television business; Warner Bros. Discovery infamously scrapped plans to release nearly complete movies Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, and removed multiple series from its streaming services. If Warner Bros. does go through with plans to delist Adult Swim’s games from Steam and digital console stores, 18 or more games could be affected.

News of the Warner Bros. plan to potentially pull Adult Swim’s games from Steam and the PlayStation Store was first reported by developer Owen Reedy, who released puzzle-adventure game Small Radios Big Televisions through the label in 2016. Reedy said on X Tuesday the game was being “retired” by Adult Swim Games’ owner. He responded to the company’s decision by making the Windows PC version of Small Radios Big Televisions available to download for free from his studio’s website.

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[–] [email protected] 143 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Products no longer available to buy should fall into public domain.

WB are an absolute cancer. Suicide Squad fails spectacularly due to being a multiplayer live service game that nobody asked for, and their immediate response is to go all in on multiplayer live service games.

Because heaven forbid the executives could be fucking wrong.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If I can’t buy it, I will pirate it with zero moral issues.

I own over 1000 DVDs and a couple hundred BluRays, but will pirate anything that gets removed from streaming or isn’t available in my region for some shitty licensing reasons.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If you have a legitimate copy of Dogma (1999), put it into a fireproof safety box. That is a collectors item already, as they pulled production of the DVD copies after a rather limited run.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Nice! I've got the 2 Disc collector edition DVD set.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Harvey Weinstein is 71. As soon as he's dead, Kevin Smith will buy the rights and you'll be able to buy it.

https://youtu.be/2_DOt1aHjhs?si=bM-2CphP8NDzGeRd

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Akira Toriyama died at 68 and Rupert Mudoch is still alive at 92. Don't assume Kevin will outlast piece of shit Weinstein.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Look, I'm not outright disagreeing with your first point. I think going that way will be a massive legal headache for just about every business.

Mainly because of patents, copyright, and all the BS, but that's a whole other thing. I'm mainly thinking about software.

New software v1.0 is released and then updated to v1.1? Is it a new product? If so, does that mean that v1.0 should be free if they only offer the updated version? What constitutes software not being available in a legal sense?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is not a matter of versions. If the content is not available for purchase then the only choice is piracy. But at what point does piracy end and it just become public domain (not even legally just them not giving a fuck to go after anyone)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

But the version does matter. We all have a game that was updated that either broke it, removed content, or changed it so drastically that it's like a completely different game. And if the older versions aren't available, but the game is still being sold.... should the older version be public domain whole the current version is being sold?

These are important questions.