One more season to go out with a bang
Another day, another announcement of a free-to-play, games-as-a-service title shutting down. Yesterday, we learned EA is shuttering Apex Legends Mobile after less than a year of operation. Today, Velan Studios announced it will shut the doors on Knockout City later this year. The game originally launched in 2021 when it was published by EA and quickly scored more than five million players. Last year, the studio announced it would be self-publishing the game starting with Season 6 and making it free-to-play across all platformers. It was a mighty challenge for such a small team, and today, the studio posted a blog update that confirmed Knockout City would end after its next season.
According to the post, the game has reached more than 12 million players and the studio has supported it with 11 maps, a dozen different ball types, and almost 3,000 pieces of cosmetics. However, it seems all that work wasn’t enough to create an ecosystem where Knockout City could continue to thrive and grow. In the blog post, Knockout City Game Director Jeremy Russo notes, “there are several aspects of the game in need of major disruption to better attract and retain enough players to be sustainable. Since we are a small, indie studio, it’s simply impossible for us to make those kinds of systemic changes in the live game while continuing to support it.”
The final season of Knockout City will kick off on February 28 and the developer is promising six back-to-back events throughout the 12-week season that will feature new twists on the game’s most popular playlists. The season will also feature a new map and storyline for anybody keeping up with that. Everything will come to an end on June 6, 2023.
If you play on PC, all is not lost. Russo confirmed Velan Studios will release a standalone player-hosted version of the game for anyone who wants to host their own servers. More information on that will be released at a later date.
While I dipped out of Knockout City around Season 5, it’s a real shame this one is coming to an end. The gameplay was a nice break from everything else in the multiplayer space. But, it just goes to show how difficult it can be to succeed in this industry, especially if you’re a small team.
