‘Small Radios Big Televisions’ leaving soon, could lead a wave of Adult Swim Games delistings [UPDATE]

[UPDATE 03/07/24] More Adult Swim Games titles are indeed headed for a delisting. Studio Bean, the developer behind Soundodger+ on Steam, recently confirmed on their Discord server that the game would also be removed within the 60 day window described in the original post below.

“There’s nothing I can do about it except reupload a new Soundodger+ myself with all reviews, community guides, and discussions wiped clean,” Bean announced earlier today on Discord. “If you already own the current Steam version, you should be able to continue playing and redownloading if needed.”

Soundodger+ will also be sticking around on itch.io and the sequel, Soundodger 2, appears to be safe as it was published by Studio Bean themselves. Our original post from March 6th continues below.

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Developer Fire Face was recently contacted by Warner Bros. Discovery with a “legal notice” explaining that their game Small Radios Big Televisions had been retired and would be removed from sale “within the next 60 days”. I knew the game, it’s one that I’d followed through the Independent Games Festival in 2015, but couldn’t think why it would be Warner Bros. behind the decision. It turns out that it was Warner’s Adult Swim Games division who published SRBT and that means 18 of their other titles might follow suit and disappear over the next few months.

Fire Face’s Owen Deery explains a bit more about the decision and the continuing concerns over digital media in this post from Game Developer. Fortunately, they’ve already zipped up the PC version of the game and have released it for free on their homepage but for now it also remains available on both Steam and PlayStation 4.

Although Warner Bros. hasn’t confirmed it, the potential downsizing might be in relation to the recent release of the underperforming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. IGN recapped a call within the company where Chief Financial Officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels, admitted that it’s performance was “setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1”.

Small Radios Big Televisions was probably not the most expensive title for the parent company to keep around with licensed games starring Rick and Morty and Samurai Jack filling out the Adult Swim Games’ roster. Chances seem high that more of their games will be delisted and so we’ve put together a list here in case you want to grab anything else before the next announcement hits. All of these were released on Steam (publisher listing here) with many also appearing on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. 

• DESYNC
• Duck Game
• Headlander
• Kingsway
• Mega Coin Squad
• Oblitus
• Pool Panic
• Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality
• Rise & Shine
• Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time
• Small Radios Big Televisions
• Soundodger+
• Super House of Dead Ninjas
• Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe
• Traverser
• WASTED
• Westerado: Double Barreled
• Zenzizenzic

Thanks to our own HandMaskTar for pointing out the news. We’ve added a “fuzzy” date to the Watch List calendar of May 5th for the 60-days-out mentioned by Warner Bros. Discovery.