Squanch Games Announces Justin Roiland Resignation
Following news that Justin Roiland will no longer be working on the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty, Squanch Games has similarly announced his resignation. In a Tweet Tuesday night, the High on Life developer revealed Roiland's departure while stating its intention to continue working on new updates, as well as future games. In 2016, Roiland co-founded the studio alongside Tanya Watson. Roiland was charged earlier this month with felony domestic violence in the state of California with one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit.
"On January 16, 2023, Squanch Games received Justin Roiland's resignation," the company wrote in a statement on Twitter. "The passionate team at Squanch Games will keep developing games we know our fans love while continuing to support and improve High on Life."
High on Life released last month on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. While the game launched to mixed reviews across the board, it has already seen great success on both Steam and Xbox Game Pass. According to reporting from industry analyst Benji-Sales, the title was the most played Xbox Game Pass game in the week of its release, as well as the fourth-most played game overall on the entire Xbox platform. The first-person shooter features comedic elements, including sentient talking weapons known as "Gatlians."
In addition to developing High on Life, Squanch Games is also responsible for titles such as Accounting and Trover Saves the Universe. As of this writing, it's currently unknown what the studio's next project will be, outside of additional support for High on Life. It's also unclear how development on these projects might be impacted following the departure of Roiland. For now, fans of High and Life and the work of Squanch Games will just have to wait and see how things progress from here.
Did you play High on Life when it launched last month? Are you surprised by Roiland's departure from the game's developer? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter and on Hive at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!