When it comes to games like Stardew Valley, Coral Island takes the cake as one of the best - but the indie farming sim's future on consoles is now unknown following publisher layoffs.
Almost two years ago, Stairway Games released its highly anticipated game Coral Island into early access on PC. A year later, publisher Humble Games launched the title for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S players. Coral Island never ended up coming to the Nintendo Switch, though - despite the developer's Kickstarter promising it would. Backers expecting a Switch key are now growing more vocal on social media to express their frustration as a result.
"Coral Island made $1M from Kickstarter campaign which included Switch players," a viral post addressing the topic reads. "There is still no Switch version of the game and these backers are not being offered alternative keys. Essentially being ghosted after they helped fund the game. Why is no one talking about this?"
Comments echo the same sentiment, with fans wondering what's happening - prompting Stairway Games to respond.
A new announcement from the Coral Island dev acknowledges backers' disappointment and reveals why the Stardew Valley-like game may not make it onto the Switch anytime soon - as well as why updates for other consoles might not roll out either. "We share in your frustrations regarding the lack of a Nintendo Switch port of Coral Island," the studio explains, citing its publishing agreement and NDA as the reason for its inability to share more.
pic.twitter.com/yzBbTvKDaDJuly 26, 2024
"The impact of Humble Games' restructuring on Coral Island remains uncertain for all things related to consoles, whether porting or pushing hotfixes, as they are responsible for these platforms," the message continues. "We've been in communication with our lawyer since we found out about the restructuring on social media to figure out how to navigate this new situation."
Stairway Games then uses its upcoming hotfix for Coral Island's recent 1.1 update as an example: "We have no idea how to get this update out to other platform players as we don't have the backend permission on console platforms to push updates out. We only have access to the Steam backend." The dev describes how Switch backers can opt to get a PC key due to the Humble Games layoffs and the uncertainty they're causing regarding console ports.
"The only thing we can do for Switch backers, effective immediately, is offer a key change to the Steam platform." Stairway Games concludes that devs know the situation "fucking sucks but we hope you understand." Fans replying to the announcement seem sympathetic - and as a longtime Coral Island player myself, I can't help but feel the same. Hopefully, things work out in the end so that both console and PC users can enjoy the vibrant, mermaid-y sim.
Itching for new cozy gems to play? Check out these upcoming indie games if so.
