Why was Only Up! removed from Steam?

Only Up! is one of 2023’s runaway success stories that became a massive viral hit on Steam. While its time in the spotlight was brief, Only Up! struck a chord with Streamers and content creators thanks to its punishing gameplay and emphasis on risk vs. reward. Since release, the hype has died down, but regular updates continued until early September 2023. And then, all of a sudden, poof! Only Up! is no more. So what happened? and why was Only Up! removed from Steam? Let’s talk about it.

Why was Only Up! removed from Steam?

For the uninitiated, I should quickly explain what Only Up! is… or was. In Only Up!, the player scales a giant tower of seemingly random objects to reach a goal miles above the ground. There’s no combat or damage, but one mistake can see you falling so far that you lose minutes or even hours of progress. It’s punishing, but similar to games like Getting Over It by Bennett Foddy, these challenges entice a hardcore niche of players. Watching your favorite streamer’s soul leave their body when they fall is pretty funny, too.

With the sudden removal of Only Up! from Steam, Social Media channels like r/gaming were quick to declare that stolen assets were the cause, but a post on Steam from the developer paints a much more personal picture.

In this post, the developer explains Only Up! was a solo project, and although they created the game to test themselves, it has caused them a great deal of stress. Because of this, they want to put the game behind them. The post continues, “And yes. the game won’t be available in the Steam store soon. That’s what I decided myself.”

The post doesn’t elaborate further, but as someone who has played a ton of Only Up! It’s easy to see how community demands could affect a solo developer. Several Steam Update posts were full of users moaning about the lack of checkpoints or how changes were made to cater to speedrunners. When the community vision for your creation doesn’t align with your own, it’s easy to see the problem there. 

There’s always a chance that Only Up! returns, but we will have to wait and see. For now, the developer wants to shift focus to a new project they are working on called ‘Kith.’

Can I still play Only Up! if I already bought it?

When games are delisted from Steam, you can still play them, provided they are already in your library. Only Up! is no exception, and even the recent update patch can still be downloaded if you own the title. Right now, it’s impossible to buy Only Up! off the Steam store. Traditionally, product keys can still be used to purchase delisted games, but not always.

If you want to try another solo developer effort on Steam, you can’t go wrong with Holocure. It’s a different genre to Only Up! but if you’ve been left with a gaping hole in your library, Holocure is worth checking out, and it’s free to boot.