I don’t understand how this works. How does delisting a game make or save money? It’s already spent in the creation. Now sales don’t cost anything. There’s no goods to ship. Steam copies the files to you, WB doesn’t do anything.
“As more developers confirm, it looks likely that ALL Adult Swim Games titles will be removed by May” cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/26167118
This. Sucks. I really love games like Duck Game, Kingsway, and Super House of Dead Ninjas.
It’s due to tax breaks. NPR did a piece on it. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1143901911/popular-titles-are-vanishing-from-hbo-max-after-merger
the relevant quote:
so it’s essentially a perverse incentive at work.
Welcome to the USA, this country is one “scam” after another all the way to the top
Because we made it that way. And we can fix it, too. Will we?
We can’t fix it, the common people only have a marginal say in our government. Corporations have captured almost all regulators and all the offices needed to effectively control the nation. Politicians will vote based on whatever their donors want them to do, not what the actual citizens in their districts want
Most of them don’t vote, so there’s no reason for any politician to ever take their wants into consideration. That’s really what needs fixing.
It’s more an unintended consequence. Pretty sure the point of this is that you can buy a company and get some relief for bad assets they have. You can also use healthy assets to get a quick tax break, for things unlikely to make a ton of money.
The law needs to change. Artistic works that are written off for tax purposes must revert to the public domain permanently and immediately.
That would be nice and in line with the goals of copyright, so obviously it will never happen.
unintended consequence is the definition of perverse incentive.