In a somewhat surprising announcement, it seems like dodge-brawler Knockout City's days are numbered after developer Velan Studios revealed that Season 9 of the F2P multiplayer will be the game's last. Servers will be switched off on 6th June, but game director Jeremy Russo says there is still a ton to look forward to before then.
In a refreshingly frank video, Russo reflects on how much the team has learned over the course of development but, sadly, says the studio struggled to deliver updates that would sustain a viable player base. Season 9 will be Knockout City's last, launching on 28th February. We enjoyed the game a great deal, even awarding it a slot on our Game of the Year list for 2021.
Still, Russo remains optimistic and is looking forward to what comes next. In the meantime, Velan Studios plan to send the game off in style, with numerous updates, giveaways, tournaments, and even an offline version of the game so that you can still play Knockout City, albeit in a limited fashion.
Are you surprised by this announcement? Will you be jumping into Knockout City before the lights are switched off for good? Attempt to dodge a wrench in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 33
Yikes.....every live service title nowadays......
Hope tlou online have UNIQUENESS
Another live-service game another shut down…
A shame but at least they will have some sort of offline mode for it. Not sure how that will work but it's a nice gesture.
this will happen to alot of Sonys live service games they are making no way all 10 of them succeed
@Grimwood Because you didnt poured in couple hundreds each year.
I'm more curious about those 10 live service games Sony is planning 🤔 Maybe keep going with TLOU multiplayer and scrap the other 9 games, possibly remove the live service part!
This is why i think every multiplayer game should have a offline mode against bots. Because, if the servers go down you can't play the game. Hopefully the last of us online can be played offline as well.
I think there's just too many online service games it's not even the case all the games are bad everybody wants that fortnite moment and why not they've made billions but games that offer something new like what fortnite did being first battle royal on console and even games like dayz and rust although not amazing games offer something that console do not have I was really surprised to see all servers full on rust of past Christmas on console.i feel we at the stage we need something new not a copy and paste of a successful games
And another one bites the dust.
Am I Surprised? Yes
Am am bothered? Absolutely not
A certain Queen song now springs to mind and it isn't Bohemian Rhapsody.
Pretty surprising news tbh but not entirely shocked by it. I enjoyed the hell out of the game back nearer release. Even managed to get the platinum for it after a good bit of grinding. Shame it's had to end up like this.
I tried it and didn’t like it at all. Surprised to see it had 9 seasons tbh.
It's sad to see a good game go. But there will never EVER be a multiplayer game that is a better experience than a great singleplayer game that you can play forever and ever without it shutting down
@Ssimsim the problem with the new live service games is they’re too greedy and charge too much for paid content ($20 character variants in Multiversus for example - complete rip-off). And they’re always super-grindy to keep you playing for hours every day. I quit Multiversus after season 1 because it was clear that they don’t have any respect for their userbase.
And another one bites the dust đź‘‹đź‘‹
And just shows why the future shouldn't be a live service experience. At least a single player game and games of the past, I can always revisit.
Now these live service games are just be a thing of folklore, if you wasnt there at the time.
Man, that's a shame. I really like Knockout City a lot, but as many have already said, there are so many service games and it's impossible for them all to succeed. Just not enough hours in the day to support everything.
I'd still encourage people to give it a go between now and June, as it really is a blast.
The way things are going, it very much looks like 2023 will be a live service graveyard.
Oh, what a shame! This game was fantastic fun!
It's a pity but it's not that surprising to many games to little time.
Live service games can also be single player games I think
Surprising? How is anyone suprised that another average live service game and one based on dodgeball at that is shutting down? Im honestly surprised its lasted 9 seasons really!
This one hurts. I had countless hours of fun with this game. I earned the platinum in both the PS4 and PS5 versions and they remain two of my rarest platinums at 0.1%.
Not surprised, even though the gameplay is actually excellent. Being a good game isn’t enough in the live service space, you need to capture some other thing, I don’t even know what to call it.
@REALAIS Heaven forbid they bought it.
Lots of live service games right now are either getting shut down, having their support cut short, or are struggling to provide a profit for the devs. Really feels like live service is slowly losing steam. Now I'm worried for destruction all stars.
From what I've seen this game is actually good and well built so it's not even enough that your live service game is well received, you have to pretty much blow up from the gates and that's not something developers or publishers can control.
Why launch a new season if you plan to shut down?
@Tecinthebrain just think about it like this, the more they fail the less they will plan for the future and the more they will have to do something else to make money so .. the failure is necessary LOL. TLOU won't be that tho, that most likely is going to be very nice.
And I don't know if they are counting what Bungie does next but that also has the chance to be nice but after that some of them are most likely going to flop hard.
@Grimwood because it’s indie garbage for kids
@AFCC you can literally still play ps3 games that have servers still up to this day . who needs to play multiplayer games for 10+ years when sequels are most likely out ?
and single player games are one-and-done experiences
@PaperAlien it’s still shocking people actually liked this game , the bar is so low for multiplayer
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