Supercell’s Squad Busters will launch globally on May 29. That’s notable because it’s the first game from the Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars developer to get a global release in over five years.
Squad Busters is a mobile game that serves as a crossover game for Supercell’s franchises. In it, players control a squad of characters from Supercell’s other games and attempt to collect the most gems among a field of 10 different squads without being defeated. In a Squad Busters press roundtable I attended, Supercell likened its setup to that of Mario Kart, as it’s an approachable competitive game where players are free to do their own thing, but can push and pull the momentum of a match in their favor by playing well and using the right items and abilities.
The game was first teased in February 2023 and has had multiple rounds of testing since then. This global launch announcement follows a soft launch in certain regions that took place on April 23. While that might seem fairly standard, Squad Busters is actually the first Supercell game to make it to that point in some time. Games like Clash Quest, Everdale, and Floodrush were all announced and tested, but support ended for all three of them before they could get a worldwide release.
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen said he had mixed feelings about the company having a reputation for canceling and shutting down games, which is something players typically don’t like.
“Most people who know Supercell know we’re famous for killing a lot of games, and the reason why we, and by we, I mean the game teams, kill so many games is that our game teams hold themselves accountable for a very high bar of creating great games,” Paananen says. “Having such a high bar for quality explains why we haven’t actually released a new game in a very long time, and I actually have mixed feelings about it …On the other hand, I’m incredibly proud of our teams for holding themselves to a super high bar.”
He explains that Squad Busters had the wherewithal to survive because of its engaging gameplay and interesting development cycle. It was born “from the ashes” of a canceled Supercell IP project that originally was targeting the company’s 10th anniversary for release. After years of testing and feedback, as well as a new team lead taking over last year, Supercell deemed the game ready for global prime time and is now rolling it out like it did Brawl Stars in 2018.
We’ll see how players respond to it when Squad Busters has its worldwide launch on iOS and Android on May 29.
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