A couple days after the developer of Small Radios Big Televisions said his game was being “retired” from Steam at the behest of Warner Bros Discovery, it’s starting to look like the entire catalog of Adult Swim games could be facing the same fate. At least two other developers have said they’ve also been informed that their Adult Swim-published games will be removed from sale within 60 days.
In a message posted on the Steam forums, Fist Puncher developer Team2Bit said they received the same message from Warner: That the game will be “retired and removed from Steam in the next 60 days.” A request to transfer the game to Team2Bit’s own Steam publisher page was rejected on the grounds that Warner “made the universal decision not to transfer the games back to the original studios and do not have the resources to do so,” despite the process of making the transfers being relatively short and simple.
“This is incredibly disappointing,” Matt Kain Lewandowski of Team2Bit wrote. “I’m not entirely sure what will even happen if the game gets delisted, but it makes me sick to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users’ libraries.
Lewandowski also expressed concern that Fist Puncher owners could lose access to the game and all associated content once it’s delisted, although that seems unlikely: Typically when games are removed from sale on Steam, existing owners continue to have access. Lewandowski said he’s hopeful that will be the case, but it’s not something he has control over.
On Twitter, Michael Molinari said Soundodger+ is also being removed, and that Warner has refused to transfer ownership. Warner will allow the game to be republished on Steam as long as it contains no mention of Adult Swim in the game “including team members and credits,” but that will leave it with no reviews, wishlists, or any other connection to the original release: “New customers won’t be able to compare achievements or trade cards with old ones,” Molinari wrote.
(Image credit: Michael Molinari (Twitter))
Duck Game developer Landon Podbielski said he hasn’t received any word about a delisting, but he expects it’s coming. “Don’t know much yet, sad but not really surprised,” he tweeted. “I loved ASG and its people but that’s all history now as they’ve been practically shut down for years. Podbielski added that the takedowns could be a good thing if Warner could return ownership of the games to their developers—something it has thus far indicated it will not do.”
Andrew Morrish, the developer of Kingsway, indicated that he also hasn’t received a delisting notice, but said if it does happen “I will do what I can to have the game relisted on Steam and other stores.”
Developers of other Adult Swim-published games haven’t made any mention of a possible delisting, but an across-the-board takedown wouldn’t be entirely out of line with recent Warner Bros Discovery maneuvers. Over the past couple years it’s cancelled the releases of at least two major films, Batgirl and Coyote vs Acme, both of which were complete, opting for tax writeoffs instead. It’s also dropped dozens of shows and movies from its Max (formerly HBO Max) streaming service.
Neither Adult Swim nor parent company Warner have commented on the status of the Adult Swim catalog at this point, but as Podbielski pointed out, Adult Swim Games has been inactive for ages: Its most recent release on Steam is Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, which came out in 2020, and its Twitter account hasn’t been active since June 2021. It’s not a state of affairs that inspires confidence in the future.
