Knockout City will soon be a free-to-play pure. It will also no longer be published by Electronic Arts, but it will become independent. The announcement was made by Velan Studios, the developer, who will assume all the costs of the game as it enters its second year of commercial life.
The changes will be implemented with the Season 6, which does not yet have a specific release date, but which is still scheduled for spring. Considering that the game was released in May 2021 and considering the current schedule of the other seasons, May 2022 could be the right month. But we await official confirmation on this to be more certain.
Let’s read Velan’s official post for more details:
You got it right, after Season 5 we will launch the second year of Knockout City, with a bombshell that will change all the cards on the table: Knockout City will become free to play starting this spring with Season 6! We are no longer in the mood to bring our game to millions of new players around the world by removing the price tag altogether.
That said, we want to take a moment to thank early fans for purchasing Knockout City and for supporting us from the start. Your dedication and fidelity spurs us every day to create this world: without you we would not have been able to get this far. Our top priority will always remain our community, and we have specially created a special Loyalty bundle for those who purchased the game prior to the launch of Season 6 – the bundle will include exclusive legendary cosmetics, XP boosts and 2000 Olocash.
The other big change that will happen over the course of the first seasons of the second year is that we, Velan Studios, will independently release Knockout City! From the day we founded our studio, we have worked hard to bring revolutionary gaming experiences to you, our amazing community. We could not have introduced Knockout City to the world without the incredible support of EA Originals, but now that we move to free to play the natural next step is to take on the responsibilities of publishing and work even more closely with our community. We have exciting plans for Knockout City and self-publishing will allow us to fully realize our vision for the long-term future of this game. We have a lot in store for you, because this is just the beginning.
What does it mean, in substance? Different things:
for starters, we have a lot of work to do behind the scenes to prepare for free to play, and the whole team is hard at work. As a result, Season 5 will have some less content than some of the previous Seasons: there will be no new Brawl Pass, we will have fewer bundles and new cosmetic items, and there will be no maps or new balls. However, this drop in content will only be temporary, and Season 6 will see a new Brawl Pass, cosmetic items galore and tons of new features, with more maps and new balls arriving in the following Seasons (small preview: a new special ball is coming in Season 6, but we’ll have to wait until we get closer to launch to reveal more details!). For now, you will still need an EA Account to play and your data will be processed in line with EA’s Privacy and Cookie Policy.
We will share more information on Season 5: Big Hits, the upcoming move to free to play and self-publishing, and the exciting future of Knockout City in the coming days, weeks and months. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you.
If you want more information on the game, read our Knockout City review.
