Remember a few months back, Antstream losing the Warner Bros. licensing for Midway and other classic arcade games (Breaking: Antstream Arcade Losing Warner Bros. / Midway License)? According to Antstream, they are working to negotiate a licensing renewal.
Now, just when we thought the game-related employee resources were shrinking, Warner Bros. is saying they won’t transfer 25 Steam listings for Adult Swim games back to the developers and plan to delist on Steam instead.
Some of the affected developers wrote that they will republish their games on Steam, but the titles will lose their community pages, Steam achievements, forum discussions, screenshots, and other content in the process. That could all be preserved if Warner Bros. transferred publishing permissions to the developers, but developers say the company is refusing to do so, citing a lack of resources.
Warner Bros. is removing Adult Swim Games from console stores and Steam – The Verge
The process, at least according to the developers complaining, takes only a few minutes or less, so 25 games x 5 minutes each = 125 minutes, or would take about two hours for all 25 Steam games listed here: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/AdultSwimGames
Seriously, Warner Bros. doesn’t have the resources to spend a couple hours transferring these games to the Adult Swim developers? Let’s add two more hours, just in case there are questions. Four hours to preserve and respect gamers time as well that participated and supported these Adult Swim games?
When we think of games going away, it’s usually the preservation angle. Here there is a case for not just the games, but associated gamer activity around these games.
It’s not only games.
PGM member Sonic321Master (https://www.twitch.tv/sonic321master) recently shared this link in the discord regarding Warner Bros.: Rooster Teeth Shut Down by Warner Bros. Discovery (variety.com after 21 years. This author wasn’t familiar with Rooster Teeth, but did see this other article covering their financials: Warner Bros Discovery expects big earnings hit amid strikes (cnbc.com)
A lot of belt tightening, indeed.
Hopefully, Warner Bros. will change directions on this, find the resources and transfer the Steam listings to the developers that would like them transferred.
Ed. Warner Bros. corporate name as of this writing is Warner Bros. Discovery
HI Todd!
This is so pathetic that WB can’t even the tiny amount of money and time to republish thier game library on Steam. Corporate greed and apathy as usuall.