Knockout City, the dodgeball-based action/sports game from Velan Studios, first released last year to a mostly positive reception. However, the mixed response from fans lead to mostly poor sales. Now, it looks like the title is going free-to-play, but this time, it won’t be published by EA.

Velan Studios announced that Knockout City will go free-to-play at the start of Season 6. Season 5 is currently slated for 1 March and will run for 12 weeks. This means that the game will go free-to-play before the end of May. In addition to the big announcement, the developers also revealed that they will take the self-publishing route and break away from EA Originals.

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According to Velan Studios, the move to self-publishing is to ensure that they can “work even more closely with our community.”

Players who already purchased the game will receive a Season 6 Loyalty Bundle in thanks for their support. This bundle will include 2000 Holobux, XP boosts, and exclusive legendary cosmetics. It’s not known if the bundle will also be given to those who downloaded the game via PlayStation Plus yet.

Knockout City received mostly positive reviews from critics when it released in May 2021, with praise directed at its fun and addictive gameplay and physics-defying spin on dodgeball. The game went to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers upon release as part of the EA Play line-up. However, players could still technically play the game for free until they hit level 25.

It looks like Velan Studios is banking on bringing more players on board through a wider free-to-play model. Judging by the surge in popularity for games like Rocket Arena when it went free-to-play, the gaming community could very well have a similar reaction to Knockout City.

Knockout City is currently available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

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Source: PlayStation Lifestyle