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

submitted 7 months ago by Ninjazzon@infosec.pub to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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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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[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 63 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Luckily Steam will keep Duck Game in my library, but I dread the moment Valve leadership changes. Steam has existed for 20 years, and I naively hope I'll still be able to play my games in 40 years on my Steck Deck.

[-] SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

Well, since you retain a license to the content until you or valve closes your account, you should be covered.

According to their own personal Steam Subscriber Agreement, you only forfit licenses when you end your subscription (like EA Play) or when the main service contract ends (close your account).

Although they may try, but then you can still sue for breach of contract.

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago

That's as things may be now. What we have consistently seen is that company's can often change their policy whenever they want. It's happened too many times already to think the current lunch is future proof

[-] Lojcs@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Steam can remove games from your account. Their definition of a subscription is different than what you think it is:

the rights to access and/or use any Content and Services accessible through Steam are referred to in this Agreement as "Subscriptions."

The clause allowing games to be removed from a group of people:

Valve may restrict or cancel your Account or any particular Subscription(s) at any time in the event that (a) Valve ceases providing such Subscriptions to similarly situated Subscribers generally,