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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Warner Bros. Discovery, as part of its ongoing effort to stretch the definition of "entertainment company," recently told a solo indie developer it would be "retiring" his 2016 dreamlike puzzle adventure game Small Radios Big Televisions from the Steam and PlayStation stores. The developer, in response, has made it free to download for PC, giving us a rare chance to actually experience the thing that a giga-corp has determined to be not worth your time, before it is wiped from the archives.

In a thread on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday, Owen Deery, a self-described "small Canadian game developer" who works as Fire Face, provided a few details in replies. Deery doesn't control the sale price of the game but will still get royalties from the games while they're up. Otherwise, you could purchase the hard-synth soundtrack as a show of support, which in this author's opinion is very good music for working or feeling a combination of nostalgia and magnetic dissolution at the same time.

Ars reached out to Deery, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Adult Swim Games for comment and will update this post with new information.

“Nothing is going to stay around for very long”​

In an interview with Game Developer, Deery clarified that the game will be pulled in the next 60 days. Deery noted that Adult Swim Games "hasn't really been a thing for many years now" and that most of the people he worked with had moved on. "When you're working with purely digital products nothing is going to stay around for very long," Deery told Game Developer. "It's kind of depressing, I'm very proud of the game, but I can see why they did it."

The reason given by Warner Bros. Discovery, as seen in the notice that Game Developer also reviewed, was "internal business changes." "Thank you for your contribution to our game library and understanding during this transition," the notice concludes. "We are available should you have any questions."

Magnetic tape distortion and existential questions​

It would be hard not to appreciate Small Radios Big Televisions, given the context. As a now-free game that you might have missed, it's original, intriguing, and unbalancing yet engaging in a way that reminds me of Kentucky Route Zero.

You are given no pretext or explanation. You are exploring an abandoned chain of factories. You move through it by clicking doors and solving small puzzles, akin to Myst. You find cassette tapes, play them, and each puts you in a single kind of biome or scene, with a limited view. You can retrieve door-unlocking polyhedrons from these scenes, but not always.

There are magnetic field generators that will mess up your tapes in bizarre ways but also sometimes unlock those door keys. The environment and some expository cut scenes give you some clues as to what's going on here and what you're exploring, but not too many. The style is distinctive, and the music, inspired by Boards of Canada, all but demands a late-night headphone session. Other gaming sites liked it, and it seems to take no more than two or three hours for most people to finish.

It's hard to imagine how much it would cost to maintain storefront support for this sub-$20 game from 2016, but it was apparently too much for Warner Bros. Discovery. Developer Deery told Game Developer that he had already retired from game development after wrapping his latest game, Radio Viscera, which "basically disappeared on release and left me totally burnt out." Hence the reason the notice from WBD seemed more "depressing" than shocking to Deery.

“It‘s kind of depressing”: WB Discovery pulls indie game for “business changes”

Developer makes Small Radios Big Televisions free to download in response.

arstechnica.com

 

[Jack Videogames]

"Thank you for your contribution to our game library and understanding during this transition"

 

[crackajack]

Could have at least been on Plus and GP before disappearing. Some people might have tried it and some pennies for engagement could have landed at WB accounts.

 

[FunkMiller]

Warners Bros Discovery are fast becoming the absolute fucking nadir of an increasingly bankrupt, pointless and sclerotic entertainment industry.

 

[Laptop1991]

Good for him, putting his game, work and customers before corporate companies.

 

[ManaByte]

Deery noted that Adult Swim Games "hasn't really been a thing for many years now" and that most of the people he worked with had moved on.

"Defunct publishers' games to be pulled from digital storefronts" doesn't quite get the rage clicks.

 

[IAmRei]

WB, Disney, Marvel are currently in awful state...
what do we do to receive these awful company who kills our belove franchises and turned our belove franchises into awful mess now.

 

[Kuranghi]

Radio Viscera looks cool, I think I'll give that a go.

 

[fart town usa]

Why is it being removed though?

 

[LordCBH]

What is the point of removing a completed and already released work? Surely there’s very little cost on WB’s end to just keep it available. Are they retarded?

 

[Esppiral]

What is the point of removing a completed and already released work? Surely there’s very little cost on WB’s end to just keep it available. Are they retarded?

So you need an answer?

 

[Miles708]

Oh yeah digital

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[diffusionx]

For the cost of developing Suicide Squad, they could have kept this game online for what, 5000 years?

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

There have been many bad decisions and poor treatment of players at Warner Bros and it was always an envious company... It is karma that is paying.

 

[mckmas8808]

Warners Bros Discovery are fast becoming the absolute fucking nadir of an increasingly bankrupt, pointless and sclerotic entertainment industry.

This direction is what many video game YouTubers and podcasters are pushing for. They want more subscription based gaming, they push to stop physical media, and they want physical hardware to go away.

Many video game media types are hoping what WB is doing here is the future. They've been pushing for it for years now.