Supercell's high bar is starting to look insurmountable
The Clash maker killed another game this week, and appears to be getting even pickier. So what hope do external teams have of making the next Supercell game?
Support my work directly – upgrade to a paid subscription:
This week’s Clash Mini cancellation was not a typical Supercell killing. It’ll apparently live on in some way within Clash Royale, echoing Everdale’s potential resurrection at partner studio Metacore.
And the day before that announcement, I published a detailed chat with CEO Ilkka Paananen and Team Lab leader Stephan Demirdjian, who outlined a tough new gauntlet-style greenlight process – one which external teams are also now invited to participate in.
Add this to growing team sizes and a split between new and live game cells, and clearly Supercell is changing.
But maybe it’s also time to loosen up a little, and release a game or two. As Steve Jobs once said to his perfectionist Macintosh team: real artists ship.
I get it - the whole Supercell ethos is to only ever release industry-shaking megahits. But in the five years and counting since Brawl Stars, the mobile business has become a very different place. Maybe it’s simply not possible to have that kind of impact any more – the biggest new hits in recent years, games like Genshin Impact, Monopoly Go and Royal Match, are each very, very well executed evolutions of other things or existing ideas iterated and polished to a dazzling shine.
At this stage it feels like every conceivable play pattern has been explored, expanded upon and given a battle pass with regular new seasons of content.
It would have been fascinating to see how the games Supercell has (publicly) cancelled in the last few years – Clash Mini, Everdale, Clash Heroes and Floodrush – fared out in the wild. Besides, these are all releases that most other game-makers would have been delighted to have brought into the world.
And yet, as boss Ilkka Paananen told me in that greenlight interview, the firm is “doubling down on what actually makes Supercell Supercell”. That is: putting a process in place that appears to make it ever harder for its teams to get a game out on the market.
I like the idea of throwing down a gauntlet just to see who picks it up, by the way. And good luck to the brave souls who do – but it all just suggests that a new Supercell launch is somehow more distant than ever, and that’s a shame.
Or maybe: there’s some fun sleight of hand going on here, and we’ll discover at GDC next week that Squad Busters and Mo.co are actually much closer than we thought. We’ll see.
Ah yes, GDC. I will be running the site from over there next week, so bear with me while I keep things rolling in between meetings, interviews and talks.
Also, mobilegamer.biz is just about to celebrate its second birthday. There will be a progress check on how things are going on Monday, but until then, remember: if you like the site and want to support my work directly, the simplest way to do that is to chuck in a few quid a month here:
This week on mobilegamer.biz
New games now: Rainbow Six Mobile, fresh Dune and Avatar games, Netease’s new shooter and more
We've also got new Netflix games, Apple Arcade's March and April line-up and more in this week's digest.
Cosmic Lounge says its AI tech can make a working prototype in six hours
Amid all the AI bluster, Tomi Huttula’s studio is one of few developers showing off real, working AI game tech.
Supercell kills Clash Mini, though it’ll live on within Clash Royale
“We have decided to commit to bringing the Clash Mini experience to Clash Royale to reach its fullest potential.”
Why Supercell greenlights teams, not games – and is now open to external pitches
CEO Ilkka Paananen and Team Lab boss Stephan Demirdjian explain the new way ‘cells’ form within the company – and why it wants external teams to be part of the new process.
Data digest: Monopoly Go and Century Games hit $2bn, Honor of Kings’ 100m DAU, hypercasual’s recovery and more
The week’s vital stats and insights from across the mobile games business, all in one place.
EU devs can distribute apps direct in new App Store rule twist
The latest DMA-led rule tweak means EU developers will be able to skip the App Store entirely, with a few caveats.
Eggy Party’s boss on cracking UGC and poaching western players
General manager Kwan Cheng tells us about the party platformer's "incredibly challenging" journey from China to western markets.
Jobs digest: moves at Apple, Homa, Huuuge, AppLovin, FunPlus, Supercell, Scopely and more
There are also ins and outs at SciPlay, SuperScale, Hipster Whale, Hutch, Xsolla, East Side Games, Voodoo, Sandsoft and AdInMo.
Apple backtracks and reinstates Epic’s developer account
“We are moving forward as planned to launch the Epic Games Store and bring Fortnite back to iOS in Europe”
Don't miss our original reporting and insights – follow us on X and LinkedIn.