Sad Cat Studios has celebrated the release of its cyberpunk-infused platformer Replaced, lauding it a “strong debut success” for the development team despite the few “rough edges”.

Replaced is the rather wonderful looking 2.5D “retro-futuristic” sci-fi game, which is set in an alternate 1980s America that has been scarred by a nuclear catastrophe. It places players into the shoes of Reach, an AI who becomes unexpectedly trapped inside a human’s body.

Soon after it was announced, Replaced became one of the most anticipated games on Steam. However, back in 2022, the studio was forced to delay Replaced due to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then, in 2023, it was delayed into 2024, then delayed again into 2025, and once more into 2026. The game finally released on Tuesday, and so far has been generally well received by players. Writing on Replaced’s official Discord server this afternoon, Sad Cat Studios said:

“On behalf of everyone at Sad Cat Studios I want to thank each and every one of you for playing the game! Replaced has become a strong debut success for us and it wouldn’t have been such without a dedicated community like the one we have right here. You are the real GOATs.”

The studio took time to acknowledge that while it believes Replaced’s launch to be successful, there are still a few “rough edges” that need to be ironed out. For example, some players have noticed the camera glitching “to the point of requiring manual restarts in some parts”, along with other issues like overlapping character animations and “the sequence for some interactions being triggered incorrectly, which glitches out cutscenes”. Sad Cat has said it will be posting a quality of life patch roadmap to address some concerns “later”, along with the promise of “some much anticipated features coming”.

I got to go hands-on with Replaced earlier this year, and enjoyed my time in Reach’s world. “I really think Replaced has the potential to be something special. I fully expect I will need tissues by the end of it, though, because I have theory about where things are going and well, yeah, emotions. And while emotions alone don’t always count for much, it’s the brutality and relevance of its dystopian setting that makes such a human heart matter,” I wrote in Eurogamer’s Replaced preview.