Image: Squanch Games
Justin Roiland is leaving Squanch Games just a month after comedic shooter High on Life became the most popular Xbox Game Pass launch of 2022. The studio co-founder, who voices many of the characters of High on Life, is currently facing two domestic violence charges as of 2020.
Squanch Games announced the news late Tuesday, shortly after Adult Swim announced that Roiland was also dropped from Rick and Morty. But the CEO’s resignation apparently came over a week ago on Jan. 16, four days after news of the domestic violence charges first broke (to which Roiland pleaded not guilty) and three days after Kotaku first reported a lawsuit reported in 2018 accusing the studio of workplace harassment and discrimination (and which were settled in 2019).
“Squanch’s passionate team will continue to create games that we know our fans will love, while continuing to support and improve High On Life,” the studio said tweeted yesterday. Squanch Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Roiland resigned, whether he was aware of any other allegations regarding him or the studio, and whether he still owns shares in Squanch.
Squanch Games was co-founded in 2016 by Roiland and former Epic Games Executive Producer Tanya Watson. Squanch Games’ early projects included virtual reality games Accounting and Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes. Action platformer Trover Saves the Universe followed in 2019. Each of them drew heavily on Roiland’s voice performances, which were heavily reminiscent of his work on Rick and Morty.
However, last year’s High on Life, which began as a Google Stadia exclusive, was by far the studio’s biggest game. In Kotaku’s own review, author Alyssa Mercante found the humor grating and felt the running gags outlasted her welcome, but was pleasantly surprised by the visual style and gunplay. The game similarly divided other critics, but audiences flocked to Xbox and PC, where it was available on Game Pass on day one.
Whether due to the game’s inherent merits or the fact that it popped up at the end of an otherwise anemic year for Xbox exclusives and blockbusters, it immediately shot to the top of the Game Pass charts. Shortly after the release, Microsoft crowned it the “biggest Xbox Game Pass launch of 2022, the largest third-party Game Pass launch ever, and the largest single-player-only game release in the history of the service.”
This award came after a major promotional campaign for the game on the platform, including a podcast interview between human Xbox mascot Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb and Roiland, in which the latter spoke about the game and its influences. That’s gone quiet now with the Xbox Game Pass Twitter account don’t tweet about High on Life since news of the domestic violence charges first broke.