Knockout City Going Free-to-Play on June 1 with Self-Publisher Velan Studios

Velan Studios has announced they will be the self-publisher for Knockout City as it goes free-to-play on June 1, with EA stepping away as publisher.

From the day we founded our studio, we’ve worked to deliver revolutionary new game experiences to you, our amazing community of players. 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. There’s so much to look forward to, because this is just the beginning.

Knockout City is coming up on its 1 year anniversary and the team still plans on releasing Season 5, but it will have less content than previous seasons. A new Brawl Pass, more cosmetics, and plenty of new features are coming in Season 6, including new maps and balls. More details will be revealed at a later date.

For those of you not familiar with Knockout City, check out our review here.

Who would have thought that a dodgeball video game could be this fun and exciting? The marvel of the Velan Studios/EA collaboration with Knockout City is how it manages to feel so fresh and yet familiar at the same time, turning the shooter genre on its ear with some innovative twists while wrapping it all up in an infectious cartoon package. It’s accessible enough that anyone can pick it up and grasp the basics fairly quickly, but there’s also a lot of nuances to allow for more complex strategies that can separate beginners from the more advanced players. In a smart move, the game was initially made free to try out for all platforms (until May 30) during a Block Party event so that people could easily get hooked and enticed to then spend a little money on the game. With all that being said, let’s get into the guts of this Knockout Cityreview.