Developer Velan Studios have announced that their team-based dodgeballer is being, well, knocked out. Season 9 of Knockout City will be its last and online services will be shut down on June 6th at 12PM GMT/6AM CST/7AM ET. Dodgeballers won’t be able to play Knockout after this date, but Velan have promised that a standalone, private-server version of the game will be coming to PC sometime after.
In a recent blog post, the game’s director Jeremy Russo explained the reason behind the news, saying “a lot of our systems supporting long-term player retention are in need of significant changes.” Russo explained that making these changes, while supporting the game through updates, is “virtually impossible to do” with a team of Velan’s size.
Knockout City was originally released as an EA Originals title in 2021, but Velan took publishing duties into their own hands when the game went free-to-play last summer. Alas, all good things must come to an end, but it’s not over for Knockout City yet. On February 28th, the 12-week-long Season 9 will kick off, bringing a new map, themed Brawl Pass, and a final Deep Space Dispatch that will conclude Knockout’s story through a podcast. On May 23rd, the final farewell event named Thanks For The KOs will begin, and players can choose which playlists are featured.
Knockout’s monetisation is also being removed at the start of Season 9. Players won’t be able to purchase microtransactions, the Deluxe Edition, the in-game currency holobux or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bundle on any platform. Instead, every event in Season 9 will be more generous with XP and holobux payouts, so you’ll have ample opportunity to buy your favourite cosmetics before it’s too late. All of the 3,000 cosmetics in Knockout will be available as part of Season 9’s events, too. Russo did state that cosmetics and progression wouldn’t carry over into the player-hosted version of the game, although he hinted it would include something to make it up to players.
Russo says that the team is “already in various stages of development on a few other projects” and that the devs on Knockout City will be moved “over to other projects as well.” On the topic of a sequel, the answer is maybe. “We love Knockout City, and we’d love to bring it back, but we’re not making any promises here.”
Knockout City is the third game to end development in the last couple of days, alongside the closures of Back 4 Blood and Rumbleverse, and boy is it getting hard to track. At least Knockout enjoyed two years of frequent updates and consistent seasons. If you’d like to try out Knockout City before the gates close completely, it’s a free-to-play download on Steam and The Epic Games Store.
