Owl City’s newest single “Up to the Cloud” is the theme song for Neural Cloud, and it’s the collab we never expected but desperately needed.

Before proceeding, check out the official music video first:

Neural Cloud released last November 21st, and to celebrate it, the developer Sunborn Network Technology teamed up with Owl City, citing that Adam Young’s “particular brand of upbeat yet wistful, mellifluous, and straight-up groovy synth-pop artistry” was a perfect match for Neural Cloud’s theme of exploring consciousness.

Sunborn described Up to the Cloud as “thematic — and melodic — meditation that dives into the game’s philosophical ponderings on artificial intelligence and what it means to be “human” in a world beyond the meat and bones of the natural body.” The song and music video follows Adam Young’s inserted character within the Neural Cloud universe as he ponders the idea of uploading his consciousness and the whole concept of humans and AI. This provides an experience not too far from the concept of the game.

Up to the Cloud has already garnered over half a million streams only a little over a week since its premiere – a good sign for Owl City as he’s planning a major album release next year.

Neural Cloud is also gaining traction. The mobile game has already racked up over 3 million players across iOS and Android. The playerbase is steadily growing, especially after receiving its first major update which adds “Livestreaming,” a limited time event, and the Sniper unit Kuro, who is deemed one of the best units in the game.

It also helps that Neural Cloud is set in the extended world of Girls Frontline, a mobile game also by Sunborn which initially became globally available in 2018 and has kept a dedicated playerbase since. Neural Cloud is meant to be a prologue for Girls Frontline, setting the scene for the technologies and mechanics that made the story and progression of the latter game possible. The two games also share some characters, albeit under different “names.” The newly added Kuro herself is known as “MDR” in Girls Frontline, which she references in her Neural Cloud splash art.