Knockout City, the free-to-play “dodgebrawl” game, is set to shutdown in June.
It means the game’s ninth season – launching on 28th February – will be its last, before servers are shut down on 6th June.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for us, but a necessary and important one for our studio,” reads a farewell blog post from Jeremy Russo, game director at developer Velan Studios.
“It’s a game that defies any traditional definition, which is what makes it both so amazing and challenging to work on,” Russo continued, describing development as a “truly rewarding experience”.
“A ton of love, passion, and hard work has gone into Knockout City, and our amazingly positive and dedicated community of players has made it well worth the effort. We love you all, and we would keep doing this forever with you if we could!”
On the decision to shut down, Russo explained: “Despite over 12 million players and billions of KOs around the globe, 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.
“So it became clear to us that we needed to take a step back and pave the way for Velan to do what we do best by innovating. Now we can take everything we learned, everything that succeeded and everything that needs improvement, and get to work on exploring new possible experiences for Knockout City and other games and products we are very excited about.”
A private server version of the game will be released on PC so the game can “live on forever”. This will be available for free as a standalone download and won’t be connected to the live game, so progress won’t carry over.
In the meantime, Velan has provided some details on the season nine update: a 12-week season with six back-to-back events full of cosmetics, playlists, and an event focused exclusively on League Play.
There will also be a new map accompanying a season-themed Brawl Pass and Deep Space Dispatch storyline. The full season nine announcement is due in the next few weeks.
From 28th February, all real-money transactions will be removed from the game – season nine will be full of in-game rewards like XP, Style Chips, and Holobux, as well as sale shops.
Then, on 23rd May, the final two-week farewell event will begin called Thanks for the KOs – a final in-game celebration with massive rewards.
“On a personal note, announcing the end of Knockout City is a bittersweet moment for me. While this is the end of a two-year journey for some of you, I and a handful of others on the team have been living in Knockout City for over six years,” said Russo.
“Thank you, brawlers, for all your passion and support these past few years. I hope you all enjoy the final season of Knockout City, and I’ll see you out there!”
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