Coilworks announced in short order on September 23rd that Super Cloudbuilt would be delisted on Steam later that same day. In a reply on Twitter on the 24th the studio confirmed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions would also be delisted… later that same day. Fortunately, the Steam version is being rebuilt and re-released with a target date around Spring 2022, but the console versions are gone for good according to the studio. Below is part of the studio’s longer announcement and FAQ on the situation posted on September 23rd:
There might be some good news, and bad news here at the same time. As some of you’ve probably already seen, there will be some changes around Super Cloud built. Coilworks’ publishing agreement with Double Eleven has come to an end, and due to some technicalities, that means there are some changes coming to SCB on PC.
The console version of Super Cloudbuilt will sadly not be updated and even more regrettably, the sales of the console versions will sadly come to a close very shortly. Owners of the current game will still be able to access the game on consoles and download it again freely, but no one will be able to buy new copies of the game. (We wanted to give everyone a longer heads up here, but this is sadly how it turned out)
On PC, things will be a bit different. The PC version will still be around, but it will be temporarily taken down from sales, and that is already in effect. We aim to get the game back on sale as soon as we can, but we will need to update the game a bit first.
First of all, we want to be clear that we hope this to be an as smooth process as possible for everyone, and we will do absolutely everything we can to ensure that. Before we clear up questions, let’s just set the stage for the scope of what we are working on.
We are internally calling this update “Super Cloudbuilt Remastered”. Some of the changes needed were best resolved by moving SCB to our latest engine branch, which led to most of these things. It might sound big, and in some ways it is, as We don’t want to promise anything for sure yet, but we are working on the following key updates: there will be a few important updates to the game.
– Ghost Replays & Replay Playback
– Graphical updates like cast shadows, enhanced lighting and color treatment
– Accessibility options (optional settings to customize the game experience)
– A rebalance of story mode, with a significant overhaul of the item / powerup system
As is usually the case regarding publishing and licensing contracts, Coilworks can’t directly explain what’s going on. Their FAQ’s answer to the question “why” is simply, “we sadly can’t say anything, except that it’s necessary due to the circumstances as the publishing agreement ends”. Regardless, it should be understandable that things are going to take time as the two-person team rebuilds the game in a new engine, while taking over publishing duties, all on a “weekends-and-evenings” basis.
Good luck Coilworks, I look forward to marking the Steam version as relisted in the future and for now have added a page to the site for the game. Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news!