Knockout City Will Shut Down In June

Velan Studios, a developer of dodgeball games, has said that Knockout City will close down in June. 

In February last year, the studio made it clear that Knockout city would be free to play and goodbye to Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts originally published the title as EA Originals. The game will now be self-published by the studio. Velan, who announced the decision to close the game in June this year after the launch of Season 6, has now made clear that it would not be allowing players to play the free-toplay version. Knockout City will also be shut down on June 6. 

In a blog, Knockout City Director Jeremy Russo announced that Season 9 would be Knockout City’s last season. All servers worldwide will be shutdown on June 6th 2023, two years since our original launch. The game won’t be available to play anymore.

Russo wrote that the last season would be packed with new content. He also mentioned that there will be an “epic sendoff” for players that host their servers. 

Russo explains why Velan is interested in multiplayer games via Knockout City. He says that despite the fact that there are 12 million players, billions of KOs, and many aspects of the game, “there are several parts of this game that require major disruption in order to better attract and keep enough players to make it sustainable.”

Russo adds that it was impossible to implement such systemic changes into the live game as a small studio. We realized that Velan could do the best thing: innovate, so we had to step back. 

Velan intends to apply all it has learned from Knockout City over its lifetime to other games and products that are “very excited about.” Russo writes about the current process for Velan to do a “comprehensive retro on every aspect the game, all community feedback, analytics data and even our development methods” in hopes of using all that information “sometime soon in the not too distant future to help us start working on what’s next in Knockout City.” 

The final update to Version 9.0 will be released on February 28th, 2023. Season 9 of Knockout city begins. Season 9 will last 12 weeks and include six back-toback events that feature some of the best cosmetics in the studio, brand new playlists, and an exclusive League Play event. The community can also pick which playlists to finish the season with a massive two-week Midnight Madness. A new map will accompany Deep Space’s Brawl Pass storyline. 

Real-money transactions also will be removed from The Game on that day. Velan has filled every season 9 event with Style Chips, XP and thousands of Holobux to make up the difference. Russo writes that every event will have a huge sale shop featuring massive discounts. Nearly all cosmetics made by the team will be featured in the shop sometime in Season 9. 

Russo wrote that Season 9 will end on May 23 just after the two-year mark. Then, we’ll begin our last 2-week farewell event, called “Thanks for the KOs”. This will be the final celebration in-game of Knockout city, with Triple XP and massive rewards as well as the return to the Community’s favourite playlist, Superpowers : Power Grab. All servers will then be permanently closed down at 12:00 UTC on June 6, 2023. 

Russo closes his blog posting by saying a heartfelt thank you for all the players of Knockout City. 

Personally, it is very bittersweet for me to hear the announcement of Knockout’s end. 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. I am so proud of the team at Velan for creating such a wild new game with such critical acclaim at launch, for creating a brand new engine from scratch that’s capable of doing things no other engine can do over the internet, for creating what I think are some of the most creative (and hilarious) cosmetics of any live-ops game on the market, and for keeping the game running, evolving, and improving for two years straight. I’m also so grateful to all of you, the players, for being the most positive and supportive game community any of us have ever seen, for dedicating your time to talking to us on Discord, Twitch, and elsewhere, for teaching me new tricks in my own game every time you beat me down in a match, and for putting up with me when I’m laying on that Taunt button a bit too much!

Brawlers, thank you for your support and passion over the past several years. I hope you all enjoy the final season of Knockout City, and I’ll see you out there!

Knockout City was really enjoyable when we visited it in 2021. It received an 8 out 10 rating. Read the full review. Game Informer You can read the review here. This was even named the top sports game for 2021. 

Knockout City shutdown news joins other games closing down news. EA earlier this week announced that Apex Legends Mobile was being shut down, along with Battlefield Mobile. Iron Galaxy Studios’ Rumbleverse was also shut down on the same day. 

Do you plan on stepping into Knockout City’s final season? Comment below to let us know!