Knockout City shutting down later this year

Velan Studios has announced that its free-to-play multiplayer game Knockout City is shutting down later this year. Naturally, all achievements in the online-only title will be discontinued.

As per a blog post from game director Jeremy Russo, Season 9 will be the game's final season, and on June 6th, 2023, servers for Knockout City will close, leaving the game unplayable and its achievements discontinued.

Knockout City server closure set for June 6th

"Today we are announcing that Season 9 will be Knockout City’s final season," Russo said. "Then, on the morning of June 6, 2023, over two years after our initial launch, all servers around the world will be shut down, and the game will no longer be playable. This was an extremely difficult decision for us, but a necessary and important one for our studio."

Knockout City launched for Xbox back in May 2021, but Russo says the game failed to find a big enough audience for it to be sustainable. "Despite over 12 million players and billions of KOs around the globe, there are several aspects of the game in need of major disruption to better attract and retain enough players to be sustainable," Russo said. "Since we are a small, indie studio, it’s simply impossible for us to make those kinds of systemic changes in the live game while continuing to support it. So it became clear to us that we needed to take a step back and pave the way for Velan to do what we do best by innovating."

All 50 Knockout City achievements will be discontinued once the server closure hits on June 6th. On paper, the list looks quite tricky, with the Daily Doer achievement and several other cumulative achievements demanding a lot of dedication. Estimates suggest a completion here will take between 60 and 80 hours.

The announcement comes hot off the heels of Rumbleverse's demise. Earlier this week, Epic announced it was closing down free-to-play brawler Rumbleverse in February. If you're looking for something decent and free to play, check out our list of the best free Xbox games.

Are you sad to see Knockout City go? Will you be going for the completion? Let us know!

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Written by Sean Carey

With a deep love for Xbox and achievements, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.