Velan Studios announced today that Knockout City will become free-to-play this spring, and the studio will handle the game’s publishing in-house, dropping EA as their publisher. The developers discussed the future of Knockout City in blog post, explaining how these two major changes will currently affect players and the game.
At the moment, Knockout City is gearing up for Season 5, Greatest Hits, which was just announced to release on March 1st. After Season 5 ends, Knockout City will enter Year 2 with Season 6 in the spring and switch over to free-to-play. Velan Studios expressed their excitement to finally offer the game to players free of charge, stating, “We’re really excited to bring our game to millions of new players around the world, by removing the price tag entirely.” Since Knockout City’s release last year, the game has stayed priced at $19.99.
Velan Studios thanked players who previously purchased and supported the game thus far. Those who purchased the game before Season 6 launches will receive a special Season 6 Loyalty Bundle that includes exclusive legendary cosmetics, XP boosts, and 2,000 Holobux.
The devs also discussed their plans to drop EA as their publisher and self-publish Knockout City over the first few seasons of Year 2, resulting from their decision to make the game free-to-play: “We couldn’t have introduced Knockout City to the world without the incredible support of EA Originals, but now as we switch to free-to-play, the natural next step is for us to take over publishing responsibilities and work even more closely with our community. We have exciting plans for Knockout City, and bringing publishing in-house will allow us to fully realize our vision for the long-term future of this game.”
According to Velan Studios, Season 5 will have less content than previous seasons as they prepare for going free-to-play. That being said, Season 5 won’t have a new Brawl Pass; there’ll be fewer bundles and fewer new cosmetics, as well as no new map or ball. However, Velan Studios assures players that this is only temporary as Season 6 will bring even more content than before: a new Brawl Pass, more cosmetics, new features, and a new Special Ball. There’ll even be more new maps and balls to come in future seasons. For now, players will still need an EA Account to play.
Knockout City is currently available to play on PC (Steam, Epic Games, Origin), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.