Level of Squad Busters rework "would have made it almost a completely new game"

• Supercell had already considered the game's future as early as August.
• There are currently no plans to bring Squad Busters back in future.
• Supercell said legal and technical challenges meant it would not transferring the game to another developer or releasing the source code to fans.

The level of work needed to rebuild Supercell’s Squad Busters would have made it also a completely new game, says the team behind the title.

Last month Supercell said it would be shutting down Squad Busters next year and ending development following its final update in December. In-app purchases are no longer available and existing players can request a transfer for the value of their purchases to other Supercell titles.

Shedding some more light on the decision, Supercell has released an FAQ featuring answers to fan questions. The company declined our request for an interview.

The FAQ noted that when the team shared a roadmap and announced new content in August, conversations about the fate of the game were already happening in parallel with development. No final decision had been made at the time, however.

“Making this decision was incredibly tough for the whole team,” read a statement.

“We love Squad, but even after several reworks, including the big Heroes update, we couldn’t see a clear path forward that would bring it to the level we expect of Supercell games. The game would have needed another major pivot to work, but after everything we learned from the Heroes update, we knew that would mean changing the experience again for players who already enjoyed it, with no guarantee new players would connect with it either.

“We also realised the level of rework needed would have made it almost a completely new game. At that point, it felt more honest to stop here rather than rebuild Squad into something unrecognisable.”

Asked what the team would do differently if it could go back in time, Supercell said it would spend more time “making sure the very core gameplay of Squad was truly ready for primetime”.

“We believed it was, but in the end, too few players connected with it deeply enough to find the fun and stay for the long-term.

“That’s not how we build games at Supercell”

Questioned if the team could bring back version 1.0 of the title - removing 2.0’s changes - instead of ending the game, Supercell said “the reality is that 1.0 proved not to be scalable in the long run”.

“When we introduced the Heroes update, we reworked almost every major system, including movement, pathfinding, targeting, fusions, chests, spells, economy, and more. Those changes are not compatible with 1.0 anymore.

“Reverting would have meant rebuilding the game from scratch, redoing months of work, and still ending up with a version we already knew was not working. If 1.0 had truly been thriving, we would have found a way to continue it. In the end, it was not a solid foundation to build on.”

The Squad Busters team said it did not want to simply update the game less often as “that’s not how we build games at Supercell”.

“We want every update to push the game forward in a meaningful way and keep it fun for years. When we realised we couldn’t keep improving Squad to the level we expect and that our players deserve, we decided it was better to stop than to stretch it just to keep it alive.”

Future possibilities

One fan asked if Supercell would consider releasing the game’s source code or letting fans continue developing the game. Some people in the industry have also posed the question on LinkedIn if Supercell might consider selling the game.

The company said it isn’t something it can do, as it includes content and characters from all Supercell games, “which makes it complex both legally and technically”.

“We also use internal tools and systems that can’t be shared publicly. As much as we’d love to see Squad live on, it’s just not something we can make happen.”

Supercell said it currently has no plans to bring Squad Busters back in future. Most of the game’s team are already working on other projects, it said.