It looks like there might be a happy ending for the indie developers whose games were set to be forcibly delisted by Warner Bros., as one of those devs now says he's getting control of his game's store listing.
Warner Bros. subsidiary Adult Swim Games previously served as a label publishing a variety of indie games, including Owen Deery's Small Radios Big Televisions. Back in March, Deery revealed that Warner Bros planned on "retiring" his game from all digital storefronts, and other developers of Adult Swim-published games soon started reporting the same thing.
The catch was that these developers would be allowed to republish their games, but that would mean discarding all the work they had already done building up their standing amid the notoriously fickle algorithms of platforms like Steam. Deery responded by simply making his game free to download.
Now, over two months later, Deery has posted an update on Twitter. "Game will not be 'retired,'" he says. "Ownership and store listings will return to me." There's been no word yet on whether other developers are getting the same opportunity, but hopefully this is not a one-off. There are dozens of games under the Adult Swim Games banner, including some genuine greats.
Game Developer reported that when developers started to be notified of these delistings on March 5, the message indicated that these "retirements" would begin in 60 days. It's now been 65 days, and it appears all those games remain in place on their respective distribution services. Here's hoping that doesn't change.
Looking for some upcoming indie games to dig into? You can follow that link for a whole bunch of wishlist-worthy selections.
