Knockout City Dev Explains What Went Wrong
Knockout City, the «dodgebrawl» game from Velan Studios, is coming to a close this June after launching in May 2021. The game didn't have the long life its developer was hoping for. But what went wrong?
Co-founder Guha Bala told GI.biz that Knockout City hit the ground running with marketing support from publisher EA, solid sales, and a surge in players thanks to its inclusion with Xbox Game Pass. However, a «mid-price premium» business model was «pretty uncommon» for a multiplayer-only title like Knockout City, with many similar titles adopting a free-to-play model instead, Bala said. Knockout City was priced at $20 before it later changed business models.
«So the competitive environment changed for pricing. It sold fairly well but not well enough to as a mid-price premium title to continue to support an additional flow of content,» the developer explained.
In response to these challenges, Knockout City switched to a free-to-play model and ditched EA as a publisher, with Velan taking on the role of self-publisher. But the shift to a free model didn't create the kind of buzz and revenue that Velan hoped for.
«When we released the free-to-play version, we had a couple different challenges. Some of it was macro and actually can be generalized to all the different games that are shutting down right now,» Bala said.
Indeed, as GameSpot reported previously, the live-service bubble may be bursting, with titles like Knockout City impacted. Bala said economic factors like inflation were «hitting really hard around the world,» especially in East Asia, leaving people spending less money on non-essentials. In the US, Bala observed other macroenomic trends that negatively impacted Knockout City.
«In some places, savings rates had
Read more on gamespot.com
