Released in May 2021, Velan Studios’ “prisoner fight” game (Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit) will nevertheless have relied on a free-to-play model and availability on all platforms, but the adventure will end on the 6th. June 2023, at the end of season 9. As this is an exclusively multiplayer game, Knockout City will no longer be playable once the servers are closed. “It was an extremely difficult, but important and necessary decision for our studio.“says director Jeremy Russo in the long post on the official website.
While the community still has a few months to enjoy with Season 9 content coming February 28, the main difference with most online games shutting down is that Velan Studios will allow their game to be hosted. on private servers, so that the clashes can continue as long as players want it. Only limit of the operation, these servers managed by users will only be available on PC.
The ball sleeps, but can still bounce
“Creating such a different game, with no point of comparison, and running live services for the first time in most of our careers has also made the past two years particularly challenging. Despite more than 12 million players and billions of knockouts worldwide, several aspects of the game need to be completely redesigned to better attract and retain enough players in a sustainable way. Because we’re a small indie studio, it’s just not possible for us to make these kinds of systemic changes to the game while still powering it,” elaborates Jeremy Russo.
It should be noted that Velan Studios still hopes to be able to use the experience acquired on this project to one day develop new experiences in the universe of Knockout City, even if the most logical would be that the team is now working on something different. “While we can’t promise that Knockout City will be back, what we can promise is that you’ll continue to see new and innovative games from Velan Studios that will surprise and delight gamers everywhere.“