Comedy action platformer Trover Saves the Universe appears to have been delisted from all platforms without warning.
As spotted and shared on the ResetEra forum by Lewie Procter, the game – which was originally released in May 2019 – is no longer available to buy on the Steam, Epic Games, Meta, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo digital stores.
Steam database SteamDB shows that the “app_retired_publisher_request” flag was activated on Monday – this is used by publishers or developers to tell Steam that a game has been ‘retired’ and should no longer be sold.
The game’s developer Squanch Games didn’t appear to have warned players that it was set to be delisted, nor has it provided a reason for the delisting on any of its official channels.
Trover Saves the Universe was originally released on PS4 and PlayStation VR in May 2019, before coming to PC, Switch and Xbox One later that year, and Oculus Quest in 2020.
The game is a comedy adventure where the player issues commands to Trover, a purple monster, directing him through each stage as they try to rescue kidnapped dogs from an evil alien called Glorkon, who’s sucking the dogs’ essence into its eyeholes to gain their power and end the universe.
Squanch Games was co-founded by Rick & Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, who recorded more than 20 hours of voice acting for the game.
Roiland resigned from Squanch Games in January 2023, following news that he was facing domestic violence charges.
Roiland was charged in 2020 with one count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit, a charge that came to light in 2023 when Roiland appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing.
Although the charges were later dismissed due to insufficient evidence, in September 2023 new allegations of sexual assault were reported against him.
There is no indication that Roiland’s presence in the game is the reason for its delisting, especially given that High on Life – where Roiland voiced the player’s ‘main’ gun Kenny – is still widely available.
