Velan announced that it will shut down the servers del free-to-play multiplayer Knockout City the next June 6thwith Season 9 which will therefore represent the swan song of the title.
Knockout City was released in May 2021 under the EA Originals label. Developer Velan Studios in February last year bought the publishing rights and made Knockout City a free-to-play game, aiming to “reach millions of new players”.
Apparently things have not taken the right turn and the Knockout City model has now become unsustainable for a small studio, despite being played by over 12 million people, to the point of convincing Velan to permanently shut down the servers.
Velan has announced that as of now all the microtransactions have been removed from the game and that Season 9, which will begin on February 28, will last 12 weeks, ferrying Knockout City until the end of services, scheduled for June 6.
The developers have promised that they will support the game to the end with updates and content. Also a will be launched standalone version on PCs with private serversso that Knockout City will still be playable after the servers shut down.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for us, but a necessary and important one for our studio,” reads Velan’s post posted on the official Knockout City website. “Before that happens, there’s a ton of new updates on the way. We’ve got a Season 9 jam-packed with all the awesome new content you’ve come to expect, an epic send-off both in and out of the game, and even a private server release on PC so may Knockout City live forever.”
“Despite over 12 million players worldwide, there are several aspects of the game that need major work to better attract and retain enough players to be sustainable. As we are a small indie studio, it is simply impossible for we make these kinds of systemic changes in the game while continuing to support it. So it became clear to us that we had to take a step back. Now we can take everything we’ve learned, everything that has been successful and everything that needs improvement, and get to work exploring new possible experiences for Knockout City and other games and products we’re very excited about.”
