Supercell announced its developers have launched a major update for Squad Busters that will change the game’s core gameplay.
New Heroes, Squaddies and Power moves are at the heart of the game’s evolution, designed to offer more strategic choices and direct control during battles.
Under one year since the global launch of Squad Busters on iOS and Android devices, the team behind the multiplayer action game has shipped what Supercell calls the most ambitious game update in Supercell’s 15-year history. It’s an extraordinary move to try and turn around a game that was not meeting expectations of the players who initially dove into it.
In response to player feedback around greater strategic depth and direct control over characters, the core gameplay of Squad Busters has been transformed through the introduction of Heroes and Squaddies.
Supercell released Squad Busters, its first new game in over five years, on May 29, 2024, on iOS and Android. Supercell had a reputation of canceling more games than it released, but the ones that it has released have been phenomenal hits, often generating billions of ongoing revenue. This game looked promising, with more than 40 million pre-registrations.
Critics have said that Squad Busters had a disappointing launch. But more than 60 million people played the game. And yet Supercell acknowledged the launch was disappointing despite the fact that it surpassed $100 million in revenues in the past year. Only at Supercell would $100 million in revenues be disappointing.
Still, the Finnish company didn’t give up on the title. Its team started ideating last fall and revamped the core of the game.
While the update ensures that mayhem and chaos remain at the forefront, players now lead their Squad to victory by carefully choosing a Hero, super-charged versions of previous Squad Busters characters including Barbarian King, Archer Queen, Mortis and Royale King.
Johnathan Rowlands, a former Space Ape lead who was recently appointed head of Squad Busters, said in a press call, “This has been a journey on how we continue to improve Squad Busters for the players. The journey really was hearing that players wanted more agency throughout the game — so making sure they had more ability to impact the core gameplay and also how they progress through their own journeys.”
These Heroes are equipped with formidable Power moves, which are actively controlled by the player. But if a player’s Hero gets busted, the whole Squad is wiped out. Cue the importance of selecting the right supporting cast known as Squaddies, whose abilities are automatically unleashed as players collect and fuse them together during the heat of battle.
“We’ve been experimenting, certainly since the start of this year, with where we can take that in various different ways. As an example, we tried having only just one or two Squaddies, along with the hero character. And we tried lots of different things, and the heroes having just their own powers. And this is where we’ve landed,” Rowlands said.
Mastering the game is about creating the optimal combo of Hero, Power moves and Squaddies and chasing loot across wild maps. So no matter whether you’re diving into the mayhem of Gem Hunt, climbing the Squad League, or teaming up with a friend in Duos, defend your Hero or get busted.
Rowlands said, “It’s been almost 12 months since Squad Busters launched globally and the team has learned a tonne thanks to the passionate feedback from our players. For example, many players have asked for more strategic decision-making before and during battles.”
Rowlands added, “We’re also starting to give players a deeper sense of the game’s lore and how that relates to the new Heroes and Squaddies. Getting to this point has meant many months of experimentation, all the while running the live game. So, a big shout out to the team, who have shown immense commitment to evolve Squad Busters into an experience that remains accessible but now offers a deeper strategic layer.”
Squad up and choose your Hero (and Squaddies) wisely as the new update for Squad Busters (iOS / Android) is live in-game now. For more information, please contact supercellEMEAhub@wearetheromans.com.
“We’re mostly playing the new version because it feels so much better,” Rowlands said. “In Squad Busters, there were two aspects of the controls that were challenging for some players.”
Stopping an attack was difficult for people to understand as it was counterintuitive. You had to control a nebulous blob of squad characters without a core focal point. The idea emerged of putting the Hero into the mix as a focal point arose and gave players direct control.
“So now you really start thinking about a strategy by picking the hero,” Rowlands said. “And we’re launching with four heroes, but we we definitely intend to bring more in the future. And that defines the style that you’re going to play. And then you also pick which of your two starting Squaddies you bring in. So you know now you’re guaranteed to have those Squaddies with you. If they do die in battle, you just go to a chest and they’ll be there to add them.”
As you unlock Squaddies, they unlock powers. And powers are what you can choose to add on to your hero.
“It’s sort of like a big strategic feast in terms of lots of different ways you can play experiment,” Rowlands said. “We’ve had a lot of feedback from players. So the squad is now in the battle. They work somewhat similarly, but you can now pick which two you go into it. And each one you unlock gives you these new unique powers. So it does feel really fresh and different in terms of what you’re playing.”
He added, “But then the core of Squaddies, and this mishmash of IPs and these really interesting characters and making these dynamic decisions on the fly with the Squaddies is all still there. So we do think we’re really enhancing what we already have.”
Much of the update work started in November, where the team tossed out a lot of ideas. The prototyping started in January, and then in February the team moved into production with “massive changes,” Rowlands said.
“We don’t want to remove things. But, ultimately, the quality of the game and the quality of the experience is what we focus on, and we needed to hit our quality bar. And we have a very high bar at Supercell. And we could have kept them in, but it just wouldn’t have hit the level we wanted to,” Rowlands said.
Since its founding in 2010, Helsinki-based Supercell has brought seven games to the global market: Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Squad Busters and mo.co. Supercell’s dream is to create games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever.
Given Supercell’s history, the team is huge. The team has about 50 people at its core across Helsinki, London and Shanghai. (Clash of Clans operated with a team of 15 in its early days; then Supercell started expanding its teams post-launch to keep teams from getting burned out by live ops). This relaunch will be accompanied by new marketing efforts.
“We’re still trying to bring in new players to the game, and we’re trying to bring back a lot of the lost players,” said marketing head Rob Lowe at Supercell, in a press event. “There’s a lot of players, obviously, who came into Squad Busters expecting something. What they found was they were interested in the idea of the game, but what they actually found wasn’t quite for them. So we want to go back to them and say, ‘Look, we’ve changed the game. We think what we’ve got now maybe what you were looking for originally.’”
As for targeting, Supercell is going after a midcore audience that likes mobile action strategy games. If the game starts to get traction, Supercell will expand the marketing from there, Lowe said.
