Sociable Soccer will return to Steam next year
Sensible Soccer spiritual soccessor was subbed off previously
Sociable Soccer is returning to Steam next year with the release of Sociable Soccer '22. This is kind of a do-over, after the spiritual successor to Sensible Soccer, from original creator Jon Hare, first launched on Steam in 2017 only to be later pulled.
Tower Studios announced the coming release via the game's site, saying that they'd partnered with Kiss Publishing to bring the game to PC and consoles. The new release will apparently have enhanced graphics, AI, updated teams, and a battle pass.
The same press release also says that Sociable Soccer was "originally released in 2019 via Apple Arcade for iOS," but Sociable Soccer's history is more storied than that. It was originally launched on Kickstarter in 2015, which flopped, and eventually released in Steam Early Access in 2017.
That initial release was fairly barebones, however, and didn't sell well enough to fund development. Tower Studios then signed a publishing deal to release the game on mobile in China in 2018, and another with a US publisher which saw it launched via Apple Arcade in November 2019. Prior to that, in June 2019, Tower Studios removed the game from sale on Steam, where development had halted and reviews had soured as early access adopters waited for promised online multiplayer.
In a post on Steam from August 2018, its developers explain that they "needed more investment than we have got from the sales so far". Completing the mobile version for publishers China Mobile would leave them with a game that "will have a lot of the online and squad building elements in place and completion of these elements for the Steam version should be a lot more straightforward."
Owners of the original via Steam will be able to get a copy of Sociable Soccer '22 for free at launch "as long as you provide a proof of purchase", according to a tweet.
Sociable Soccer '22 is due to launch in Q2 2022.