Developer makes Small Radios Big Televisions free to download in response.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/168Vn

There are now several games known to be getting delisted by WBD. I will link to the article with the list at the end

Some key highlights:

Warner Bros. Discovery, as part of its ongoing effort to stretch the definition of “entertainment company,” recently told a solo indie developer it would be “retiring” his 2016 dreamlike puzzle adventure game Small Radios Big Televisions from the Steam and PlayStation stores. The developer, in response, has made it free to download for PC

Deery clarified that the game will be pulled in the next 60 days. Deery noted that Adult Swim Games “hasn’t really been a thing for many years now” and that most of the people he worked with had moved on. “When you’re working with purely digital products nothing is going to stay around for very long,” Deery told Game Developer.

The reason given by Warner Bros. Discovery, as seen in the notice that Game Developer also reviewed, was “internal business changes.” “Thank you for your contribution to our game library and understanding during this transition,” the notice concludes. “We are available should you have any questions.”

Warner Bros. Discovery executives said late last month during a financial call that its gaming business was due for a “tough” year-over-year comparison. That is largely due to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

At a higher level, the merged Warner Bros. Discovery entity has shown no hesitation when it comes to folding known names and removing content. The firm killed the fully produced Batgirl and a Scooby-Doo film prior to release as a reported tax strategy.

It’s hard to imagine how much it would cost to maintain storefront support for this sub-$20 game from 2016, but it was apparently too much for Warner Bros. Discovery.

The list of Adult Swim games can be found here: https://delistedgames.com/as-more-developers-confirm-it-looks-likely-that-all-adult-swim-games-titles-will-be-removed-by-may/ (Archive link: https://archive.ph/fjt3Q)

  • @Glide@lemmy.ca
    32•10 months ago

    Suicide Squad bombed so hard that it’s killing every indie game under their umbrella.

    Is this that “trickle down economics” I keep hearing so much about?

    • @UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      14•10 months ago

      It really does feel like that’s what happened. Is WBD going to can something every time they lose an expensive bet?

      To add insult to injury, I don’t think anyone was clamoring for an online-only looter-shooter version of this game. If they had just let Rocksteady do their thing, it probably would’ve been a hit. WBD (probably) meddled hard with what would’ve been a solid game, and now a bunch of smaller developers are paying the price…

      That does not feel like a good way to build brand loyalty. Especially because no artist is going to want to give their work to a corporation who will throw it in the trash first chance they get.

    • @t3rmit3@beehaw.org
      5•10 months ago

      This is just the same thing EA did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Exec management wanted out of AAA singleplayer games, so they set the ME:A team up for failure, and then used that failure to justify the change to the shareholders.

      WB wants out of large budget games, so they created a flop to justify it.

      • @Hisnitch@beehaw.org
        3•10 months ago

        This is just the same thing EA did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Exec management wanted out of AAA singleplayer games, so they set the ME:A team up for failure, and then used that failure to justify the change to the shareholders.

        If that was the case, then games like Jedi: Cal Kestis and the upcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect games wouldn’t even exist, even with the surprise success of Jedi: Fallen Order. But also, that’s not even what happened with Andromeda. What happened is that BioWare’s A and B teams screwed over the team that was making Andromeda constantly. That team (henceforth referred to as the C team) before had only had experience with the wildly considered to be worst DLCs of ME:3, and was working with an engine that was known for being incredibly hard to work with and temperamental with any game that wasn’t a first-person shooter.

        Even so, they had to struggle without the help of the significantly more experienced team leads and were bullied constantly without resources. After the game failed, the C teams were then dummied out of the company to other sections of EA. BioWare then went on to make Anthem… without the C teams help who by that point were experienced enough to probably deal with some of the growing pains. Andromeda and Anthem were two games that were made entirely by the behest of BioWare, with little to no involvement from EA, because at that point, they were still the starling studio of EA. In fact, as an aside, the only involvement from an EA exec for Anthem was one of them was playing a vertical slice that ended up deciding the rest of the game because all the Exec said was that it was fun.