Amid concerns that Warner Bros Discovery could be delisting all Adult Swim published games from Steam, the solo developer of Duck Game says they are “hopeful for the future” and that “there’s no way anything will ever make it disappear” as they outline what they’d do depending on what could happen.
Duck Game solo developer Landon Podbielski has penned a lengthy statement on the uncertain future of the multiplayer game, amid concerns from many game developers who have worked with Adult Swim Games – a subsidiary of Warner Bros Discovery – that WB might be delisting their work.
Fellow indie release Small Radios Big Televisions has now been made free after that game’s solo developer says Warner Bros told them they would be retiring the game from stores amid “business changes” at the company.
I previously reached out to Warner Bros to get confirmation of the 20-plus Adult Swim Games being delisted from Steam with no response, and have done so again for this story. In the meantime, some of the developers of these games have come forward publicly to say that WB is taking their work down.
In their post, Podbielski says the whole situation is “a particularly confusing kind of scary for those of us who haven’t gotten any notice yet,” adding that it looks like the games will be coming down around May of this year.
Podbielski then goes on to thank those at Adult Swim Games who helped Duck Game over the years, saying they went to ASG to get Duck Game ported over to Steam. “Everyone at ASG was like a friend and we talked and played DG together constantly. They were as dedicated to the game as I was and their producers/marketing people were constantly working to hustle the game and get it in front of as many people as they could,” Podbielski says.
“It’s funny how things change,” Podbielski continues further down. “Funny in that f***ed up kind of way like when you’re laughing out of madness because life is the funniest joke. I’d always been weary [sic] of working with bigger companies and with ASG I thought I had finally found one worth trusting, but the mistake was assuming that forever trustworthy people make a forever trustworthy company.”
“None of the amazing people who worked at ASG are to blame, but the fact is that those people were ASG to me, so without them, ASG has become a frightening corporate puppet and Duck Game has lost the delicate care of its previous keepers.”
So what does all this mean for Duck Game? Podbielski runs through multiple scenarios: Duck Game not getting delisted, another publisher gets involved, Duck Game gets an ASG-free Steam page, or it’s delisted and never seen again.
The Adult Swim-free Steam page option appears to be one of the most confusing potential ways this could go, as Podbielski runs through how they’d want to make this new version free, and ensure both versions can play together. “Duck Game will have to be republished as a free game to avoid anyone having to rebuy something they already bought.”
In closing, Podbielski says “I’m hopeful for the future. It’s been a crazy ride, and many of the best moments of my life have been adjacent to DG somehow. I’ve been so lucky up to this point, everyone has been so kind and understanding that I could cry. Thank you. Duck Game will be ten years old on May 13th, and it’s going to show up to its own party.
“DG belongs to its players as much as it belongs to me, and it belongs to all the great people who used to work at the best game publisher I could ever ask for. There’s no way anything will ever make it disappear, I will never stop updating it as long as my hands and eyes work and I’m sorry for scaring anybody in the heat of the news with my own fears otherwise.”
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