- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- games@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- games@lemmy.world
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.
You must log in or # to comment.
And on top of the tax breaks everyone’s talking about, they also don’t have to keep developers, community staff, or support on the payroll anymore.
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:
it’s about these special tax breaks that these companies can take in the immediate aftermath of a merger. So the company expects to write off something up to $3.5 billion connected to content costs as a result. And part of getting that tax benefit means they have to pull some of these shows from the service
so it’s essentially a perverse incentive at work.
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.
A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers.
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
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.
Copyright, licensing, and derivatives.
Many games, like GTA San Andreas, had licensing deals fall apart over time, and certain assets (like music) were removed and replaced.
When a game gets sold, the publisher has to figure out who all has to get paid, which means you’re paying for people who work in accounting figuring out where all this money is supposed to go.
In other words, sometimes it’s a lot cheaper to just not sell the game anymore.
GTA being a bad example with its popularity, but in another instance where assets need to be replaced, if its an unpopular game, easier to just delist it than pay someone to work on it and replace assets. Further, when you no longer have to pay other people for their involvement in the game or for licensing, suddenly you have fewer people you have to pay to do the job of figuring out where all the money goes.
Delisting frankly cuts costs across the board.
