Radical Heights Trademark was Bought by Squanch Games

So here’s today’s helping of really weird news.

Remember Radical Heights? I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t, as it was the last gasp of Boss Key Studios, that ambitious but not terribly successful effort by ol’ Cliffy B to strike out on his own. It was a Battle Royale game with an '80s game show aesthetic, and while it was more polished than many similar early-access competitors (lookin’ at you, The Culling 2) and had some unique ideas, it was by no means a competitor and Boss Keys shut down almost immediately after Radical Heights launched.

But as it turns out, the game’s not really… “dead.” It's been more “in a coma” because Squanch Games – a small studio headed by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, founded in 2016 – secretly bought the trademark for the game way back in August 2018, but the trademark was only updated on May 7th.

Now it goes without saying this is a little bit… weird. Squanch Games has released two titles so far, both of them VR comedy games – specifically Accounting and Trover Saves the Universe. And while Radical Heights is certainly one of the more comedic takes on the Battle Royale genre, it’s a very, very different ball of wax, not only in tone, but in scale.

That said, while it’s still too early to start saying that this will inevitably lead to the revival of the long-sleeping Battle Royale game, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Squanch Games has something planned for it: after all, the address filed on the trademark is in Raleigh, NC, and Squanch is currently opening a new studio in that very same city, and are currently hiring people for it.

I think I can confidently say I’m not the only one who didn’t expect to be reading or reporting Radical Height news in 2019. This is gonna be a weird day.