Knockout City Shutting Down After Ninth Season

Last week I wrote about the announcement that Rumbleverse would be sunset, which came on the same day as EA revealed they would be shutting down two of their mobile titles. The coincidence was a reminder that you can’t always judge how well a game is doing from the outside or whether it’s meeting its own goals. It was also a good reminder that a live-service multiplayer game can be taken down when players least expect it.

That wouldn’t be the end of live-service cancellations though. On Thursday it was announced that season nine of Knockout City would be the last. Initially launching in May 2021 with EA publishing, developer Velan Studios ultimately took over and self-published it during the transition to becoming a F2P title in June 2022. It’s now set to shut down a little after the second anniversary on June 6th.

The dodgeball-like game won’t be ending on a whimper though as the full-length 12-week ninth season is set to go live on February 28th. It comes with a new map, six events packed with rewards, and a new Brawl Pass. While monetization options are being removed, players will still be able to earn a lot of XP and in-game currency to use on heavily discounted shop items that include nearly every cosmetic made for the game.

Once the season ends on May 23rd, a final farewell event lasting two weeks will start. The fan-favorite Superpowers: Power Grab playlist will be returning and triple XP will be active for the final days. Although the servers will be officially shutting down on June 6th, some will still be able to play it if they want to. Those on PC will be able to download a private hosted server version. Further information is expected to come soon, but for now, you can find out a bit more on the official update page.

This wasn’t even the final cancellation of the week. Friday morning brought about the news that the servers for CrossfireX will be completely shutting down on May 18th and taking the single-player campaign with it. Even if that never made as much noise as Knockout City, the cancellation represents the end of a strange week with a lot of blows to different communities. Here’s to hoping that no other communities join them too soon.