Adult Swim Games to return discontinued store listings to developers
posted Sunday May 19, 2024 by Scott Ertz
A couple of months ago, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced that they would be shuttering 16 of the titles under the Adult Swim Games brand. The announcement meant that those titles would no longer be available to play and the games themselves would be lost to time. Now, the company has announced that they have come to an agreement with the independent developers whose games were on the chopping block to return the IP to their creators.
Developers vs. Publishers in Gaming
In the gaming industry, developers are the creative forces behind the creation of video games. They are responsible for the conceptualization, design, coding, and testing of games. Developers can range from large teams in established studios to independent developers, often referred to as "indies," who may work alone or in small groups. Their primary focus is on the technical and artistic aspects of game development, which includes writing code, creating artwork, designing levels, and composing music. Developers are akin to authors of a book, bringing to life the narrative, gameplay mechanics, and overall experience of a game.
Publishers, on the other hand, are the entities that finance and distribute video games. They play a crucial role in the marketing, sales, and distribution of games to retailers and digital platforms. Publishers often fund the development of games, which allows them to have a say in the final product, including decisions related to release dates, target demographics, and marketing strategies. Large publishers may have multiple development studios under their umbrella, while smaller publishers might focus on niche markets or indie games. In essence, publishers are similar to book publishers, ensuring that the product reaches the market and is visible to potential consumers.
The relationship between developers and publishers can be symbiotic, but it can also be complex. Developers need publishers to bring their games to a broader audience and to provide the financial support necessary for large-scale production. Publishers need developers because, without their creative work, there would be no product to sell. However, this relationship can sometimes lead to conflicts when the creative vision of the developers clashes with the commercial interests of the publishers. The balance of power between the two can greatly affect the final outcome of a game, with developers seeking creative freedom and publishers aiming for commercial success.
Adult Swim Games as a publisher
In the case of the developers in question, Adult Swim Games was acting as a publisher. That means that independent developers had produced the games, but Adult Swim Games had helped to bring them to make, increased their visibility, and provided resources. In some publisher relationships, when the company decides not to support it anymore, the game comes to an end, while others allow the developer to take ownership of the games back.
Adult Swim Games' relationship allowed them to terminate support for the game, return the game to the developers, but keep ownership of their store listings. This meant that years of history - reviews, photos, community discussions - would all be lost. The developers could relist the games, but the history and community would be gone. The developers petitioned WBD to allow them to keep their games after shutdown, but initially the company said no. This week, one of the affected developers posted on Twitter that they received an email from WBD and h said,
duck game is safe!! more details soon but the email from warner finally came. the game is being returned to corptron along with it's store pages on all platforms, it's not going anywhere. thank you everyone... hoping everyone else got the same email.
This means that WBD has decided to transfer the store listings to the original developers along with the games themselves. As noted a few months ago, the process is incredibly easy and would have had no negative impact on WBD or Adult Swim Games. It was never clear why the company fought the easy move for so long, but it good to see that they have come around and decided to give the developers all of their IP back at the end of the relationship.
