How Did This Game Lose 2 MILLION Players in JUST 2 Weeks?

[@CreemSmile]

Stop torturing yourself and get Opera GX: operagx.gg/Creem

[@SeaRavioli]

oh my god it’s that brand from twitter

[@AG45.]

I'd rather not have the CCP on my computer

[@based980]

spyware

[@Zyodl]

pfft no lmao

[@tlddruidkilla]

Hello gweilo install our browser from da great China, feel safe knowing glorious CCP is watching over you!

[@zzzkk0]

> indie game > made by ea something doesn't seem right

[@CreemSmile]

Published by EA, looked better in the title though :)

[@zzzkk0]

@@CreemSmile it worked xd (peep the game I play)

[@CosmosStudios-ho5fg]

There is one impostor among us

[@zzzkk0]

@@CreemSmile feel free to check my channel if you need a good game for a new vid

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

I assume (without finishing the video) that it's related to that arm of EA where they fund an indie developer's project and publish it. That part of EA was created because EA tried really hard to rehabilitate their image. You might remember this being mentioned in the "EA doesn't like being seen as bad guys," article/interview.

[@UnBR0k3enAngel]

I was also one of the beta players who left right when launch came. Don't get me wrong, this was an absolute banger of an idea, but I think you really nailed that Knockout City had issues in both skill ceiling as well as overall content. There was simply no justification to play $20 for a niche pvp game with so little to play at launch. We SHOULD have gotten maps that played with physics and water more (its why i loved the construction map). We SHOULD have been shown more ball types in beta (football was crazy OP and not mentioned). Man...I'm gonna miss this game and there's just no way to play it again legit, and that's what I hate about live service.

[@CreemSmile]

Honestly I thought the football was the most boring one, interesting idea but it was boring to play against and even more boring to use, it slowed the game down so much.

[@UnBR0k3enAngel]

@@CreemSmile bomb balls were the worst for me. Felt redundant because players could be bombs anytime they wanted

[@teenageapple3788]

It was crazy satisfying to actually catch the football. And dreadful when your target caught it…

[@videogamegooners]

I loved that game so much I made a competitive discord server and basically quit the same day and nobody joined it but I was tuff at it

[@videogamegooners]

Sniper balls were the biggest learning curve for beginners to time it

[@paperverp]

We all have that one. “Random live service game we enjoyed a lot that shut down a year or two later”

[@DeputyFish]

battleborn...

[@Kaminari_K4ze]

Omega striker

[@Lord_Chibi]

SpellBreak

[@cjyoung5635]

Gunz the duel shutting down to force people to play Gunz 2 always hurt.

[@TheDragonfriday]

Eh never experienced that, but I experienced a game become a zombie with zero updates till this day.... Spiral knights it got potential but it abandoned

[@X2DA]

Hey hey! Guy who made the tutorial video you plugged here. Thanks for including it! I also want to throw in my 2 cents regarding why it failed. I believe that one factor alone is what killed so many people from even trying this game: MISINFORMATION!!! An ABYSSMAL number of people I asked about Knockout City immediately wrote it off as "Dodgeball Fortnite", which, aside from being insulting, could not be more incorrect. It's not their fault either; many of those creators EA paid off to sponsor the game advertised it as such, which sucked major ass for us. Not only that, but EA decided to outsource a team of animators for KO's initial reveal trailer, a team who had NO IDEA what the game was even about. What resulted was a messy first impression that provided viewers with little info on the game itself, and got them attached to characters that weren't actually a part of the game. In many respects, EA is mostly to blame for this game's lack of anything worthwhile. After all, most people these days see an EA title and go "Ew, I don't want to play an EA title?!? It's probably bad!" Video Game "journalists" were the absolute worst part, leading people to falsely believe that the game was sold out to Epic Games (when in actuality, they just switched over to using one of their backend services), which again, another publisher notorious for their mediocre products. It bugs me TO THIS DAY that not a single one of those chucklef*cks bothered to, oh I don't know, MAYBE INTERVIEW SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY KNEW MORE-THAN-SURFACE LEVEL DETAIL ON KO CITY, and instead chose to just BLAB their assumptions and hope they were correct. All in all, what you cover in this video is immaculate and well-insought. I just thought I'd talk about EA's publishing of the game as a factor. Thanks again for putting this together! (and for you non-Creems reading this as well, I encourage you to try out the Private Server build if you've got the PC for it.) Sincerely, X2DA, The Knockout City GOD

[@griteom4538]

how're our chances for a Gigantic style comeback?

[@edudiosmanlol]

@@griteom4538 Pretty slim considering that the devs said that they are gonna move on to other projects and only in a far future they might give it some attention

[@griteom4538]

aw :(

[@TemmiePlays]

you're not allowed to talk about ko city lol. it's nice to see ppl finally realize the issues that I endlessly brought up ( only to have the dev team and community hate me , and silence,/ ban me on everything lol ) the reason the game failed is the dev teams fault. the terrible advertising brought ppl in at least to mock it, that's why I showed up.

[@King-Brando]

All valid points I agree with. Also side note, I still think the tutorial (without Xander) is far superior than the one linked in this video, but that’s just one vigilante’s opinion 🤷‍♂️ - Beanie-Man (who is NOT Brando & only uses his YT account because he’s too lazy to make his own)

[@leroysteveson38]

i miss this game, i hit sapphire twice in a row and ill never forget the taunts, being able to just SCREAM at your enemy after dumpstering them was something else, i love knockout city, and i miss it...

[@miguelgomez5004]

Best fuc… game ever. I just like rocket league and these game. And now just.. rocket league

[@MorbyLol]

calling an EA published game indie is like calling endgame indie lmao

[@monikamorningstarshadlo4129]

Same as a Ubisoft game indie (Hyperscape)

[@An2.Aim4r]

​@@monikamorningstarshadlo4129In the case that the indie developers get anything from a company like Ea or Ubisoft im pretty sure they stop being indies

[@Jordaxio]

But it's not wrong? Indie basically means small that is independent, this is developed by a studio who has made 3 games ever seemingly, that by definition is indie whether Ubisoft, EA or Rockstar publishes it.

[@An2.Aim4r]

@@Jordaxio But what about cases of company with complete creative independece and zero financial independence?

[@dynamitewolft4194]

@@Jordaxio no it means a game that is published independently by the devs without a publisher

[@jijigri9224]

I think it's pretty sad that a game can't launch today by having a price tag and everything earnable in-game, I really think it's the best model

[@alyasVictorio]

Yeah! Deep Rock Galactic had this best live service model, and it got the praises and lovable communities it deserved specially at the right time to launch like year 202Xs

[@bakad5458]

Depends…The sad truth is no matter what some games are just designed to flop. Whether it’s paid game or not doesnt matter. What matters the most is the gameplay loop and how appealing it is to the average player. Some games just aren’t designed to last for a long time

[@jijigri9224]

@@bakad5458 I agree with that very much

[@UltravioletNomad]

I mean, Splatoon gets away with it

[@NeroV1L3]

Could not agree more. I hate nothing more than hopping on a game and being bombarded with dollar signs. Just let me pay up front and get everything that way

[@SadToffee]

EA or whoever ABSOLUTELY downgraded the servers after the beta, it's why I stopped playing. I bought the game and all of a sudden my and all my homies' connections were garbage. felt like I got swindled. and the skill ceiling definitely didn't help.

[@lastmonarchistproduction_253]

If it’s true, then why did ea left in 2022 and let the developers have it

[@glitch91]

This. I have clips of my friends playing both during the beta and after release and the game suddenly felt like SHIT as soon as it launched. Baffling decision, this game was such a blast.

[@ShmedTato]

As a past competitive player for KO City during Season 1, I loved this game so much. Even the bad games with bad randoms being at the top of the rank charts, my duo and I really didn't care. I'm still so heartbroken that KO City was shut down and I really hope in the future someone else can pick up the game and keep it alive. The game is just too iconic feeling with fun gameplay to just have its story be left in the dust like this! Also, fantastic video, I got so much nostalgia from watching and remembering all the fun times I had on the game! 💚

[@the350joker2]

I was very surprised when they announced it was being shut down, they just had a huge Ninja Turtles crossover event for it too. I hope somehow some way this game returns.

[@FrancisEctomorphe]

There are so many live service games nowadays that it's hard to really get a playerbase growing, Spellbreak was super fun i played it for about 80hrs and it shut down soon after, i've nevere played Rumbleverse but so many creators have high praise for the game and it still shut down soon after launch, and Multiversus a game i've played for 300hrs is coming back in 2 month or so because they had to shut down to "re-launch" the game and pretend this was a beta all along (lmao) because it failed to keep the playerbase interested. Making a live service game is sooooo hard when you don't have an insane budget or predatory ways to keep your playerbase (gacha games for examples) and so many live service games are coming out every month. I hope the more creative games like knockout city and all the games i've talked about in this comment can find a playerbase someday. It's sad to see very unique and creative games fail like that.

[@Fargus-ut3kt]

No it was a beta all along lmao even said it they didn’t pretend

[@little_error295]

Yh what dude above me said multiversus literally launched as a beta if anything they extended it because so many people where playing and enjoying it

[@proxywolfx]

Multiversus was literally a beta from tbe start..

[@FlightX101]

multiversus was actually marketed as a free to play beta from the start so i give them a pass. As for Rumbleverse it was a crap ton of fun with a great player expression

[@FrancisEctomorphe]

aight i know multuversus oficially launched as a beta but ehy launched the game with a battle pass and in game shop and all, that's not what i call a beta lol. To me they launched the game "as a beta" so if things do not turn out how they want it they can backtrack (wich is pretty much what happened). Nontheless the game is coming back in a month or so and i'm excited to play it (hope the game catch on more with people this time because it was very good)

[@baloney1053]

3:33 The feeling of catch all the 3 dodge balls made you feel like an unstoppable god. PLEASE I pray they bring this game back 😊. I really miss it. I would always listen to music while playing. I never found a game like that ever since it shut down. 😢

[@slavikcrusader96]

honestly, completely forgot that this game existed. the overall concept of the game was good but no one would really spend $20 on a live service (except for those that buy 2K, Fifa or CoD games every year....) that is pretty niche the fixes i would've done is; 1) $5-10 is more reasonable for a niche title, or just make it F2P from the get go (as it was done a year later...) 2) more maps, maps can reduce or increase the skill gap, as some maps can be made more open and others more like a maze, forcing players to be on their toes and think strategically game had potential, but was sadly wasted...

[@CreemSmile]

You make a good point, I specifically like the idea of more maps designed to change how you play, rather than actually changing the core game to achieve the same effect.

[@TheHonestSage]

Ey....I don't play those games...but I loved knockout city ;-; I saw the addictive potential in it man, I WANTED that game to thrive SO bad

[@jetx0427]

honestly I'm so surprised you only have like 6-7 videos to watch i just found your channel and proceeded to watch all of your videos. You make some really good content my only disappointment is how little there is of it please increase your video output and consistency you are sure to grow into a large channel mate

[@GamingNetwork524]

I didn't play, but I felt like one thing that was unpleasant while watching, was just skill disparity. High level games just felt like they were playing catch or it felt like someone was just throwing a ball as hard as they could at a child.

[@roadrollada287]

I clicked on the video because of the title, learned what game were you talking about, did not had a lot interest about the topic but still finished watching the video because of the editing, it's really good man. Not only does it look and feel clean and professional, but you also bring something refreshing with the VR Avatar, and very funny bits here and there. I don't know if you are cooking something else for this channel, as it has been 4 months since the last update, but if you are, I'm looking forward to it.

[@coreyu98]

Fuck I miss this game 😭

[@Breexee]

I actually liked Knockout City.

[@lucydigger1053]

Its so weird to hear LittleBigPlanet sound effects in a modern video just as background sounds effects

[@Junjisboi]

it was mainly due to them not affording servers because after f2p player rention was to low they hinted at a revival in the shut down accouncement

[@Jonrocks7]

Im sad that this game went offline, i started having so much fun when i came back to it in the final weeks of it

[@fredthefrog3449]

I actually might be on the small minority of being against a game going free to play. I’ve seen the difference in how overwatch was monetized before and after the release of its sequel. Compared to how much was earnable before to now, I would rather it be pay to play. With the game Gigantic re-releasing in a pay-to-play state rather than its original free-to-play I am also scared that it won’t have a large player base because of that model. However I think I would rather deal with that price tag than 20$ skins. Additionally, Overwatch 1 was 40$ (origins was 60$) and it still had an incredibly large player base. Although that may have only been because Blizzard had a good rep at the time 🗿

[@phirephenix1347]

The issue with Overwatch going F2P was that players previously had to pay for the game, and got little to no compensation when OW2 released. In general, OW2 was such a failure that it should be an outlier in the argument on F2P vs Paid. I played OW in its prime, all the way to the OW2 release of Venture, so I feel like I can say this kind of thing with a sense of confidence in that a game should not switch from Paid to F2P and vice versa

[@ScientificallyImprobable]

Free to play isn’t the right route- but for a niche game neither is paid. The right play would have been: For players how own the beta, the game is free, but for anyone who doesn’t have the beta slap that price tag on.

[@megrock6920]

Dude this video is awesome! Not only was it really informative about something not everyone has covered, but the presentation is *so good*. It’s really engaging and original and so impressively well done. I can’t even imagine how long it took to polish all those tiny details. You deserve so many more subscribers! Keep up the good work, can’t wait to see the next one!!

[@straxacore]

I have literally never heard of this game until right now.

[@DawnSentinel]

Yeah, I'm looking at this and thinking 'well, I never even knew it existed, so It can't have been that big. I do hear about games that aren't in genres that I play if they get big enough, but I never heard about this.

[@skateboredxo]

That monkey paw bit got me so good

[@xTxCxMx]

I will say, the instant I saw the first trailer I said "This game's gonna flop." I feel like I said that about a lot of the games shown in the dead games bit here and I can't help but wonder if I'm alone in that. I'm gonna say no, seeing as I'm not some sort of genius market analyst, and I can't help but wonder if not smelling quite so badly of "Doomed Game" might have helped games like this or rumbleverse or all their ilk. What's furstrating though (aside from seeing what by all accounts were very fun games die so soon) is how hard it is for me to articulate what exactly it was that made the game stand out to me as being obviously doomed so fast (especially when I don't think I knew it cost money). I've got a few ideas: 1) The game advertised itself rather strongly (for this sort of game), meaning they were banking on being relatively successful. Or like, at least as successful as other games that advertised like they did which were in far less competitive markets. 2) It looked more like a "Dodgeball themed third person shooter" than it looked like actual dodgeball. It didn't strike me as all that unique or different from other online pvp games, meaning all the dodgeball theming really brought to it was an aesthetic, and let me ask you: When was the last time you met another adult who loves dodgeball so much they play it regularly? It doesn't strike me as a big enough aesthetic that it would actually draw people into what otherwise looked incredibly generic. Leading to the last and imo probably biggest factor 3) It looked SO DAMN GENERIC. Not a single risk was taken or creative idea made when it came to the art direction. Not saying it was ugly or anything, heck I kinda liked what I saw of some of the cosmetics, but they took the "safest" direction they possibly could and now it just wallows in an endless sea of things that want those sweet, sweet fortnite bux. It's not just that it doesn't stand out though, it's also just a fairly unappealing style. I mean that literally, as in "I don't think this style actually appeals to any one group of people or specific taste in media". Like, stuff in an anime style will bring in weebs, plenty of people are suckers for cyberpunk styles, but what is this style even supposed to be? Despite being "cartoony" it doesn't actually look like real cartoons. There's a little bit of a punk/street flavor there but it's had the corners sanded off until it's nothing but more corpo colorvomit. IDK, games like these just strike me as diving into the deep end despite failing to do anything to try and set themselves out from their competitors. They present themselves to the broadest audience they possibly can by being "safe and generic". but being generic is the most dangerous possible thing in the cutthroat market of pvp live services.

[@blueface]

Just learned tonight that the announcer for the game is the same guy that does karaoke every week at my local bar, never heard of this game until tonight. Wish I played it before it went under, seems hella cool!

[@LieutenantTryhard]

I missed this game ngl. Came back to try it about a month ago and realized i couldn't log in cuz it shut down. I was kinda sad atm ngl

[@doctor_no-one]

Apex is amazing, sad that all its players are within the lv150-lv600 range, and therefore has no new players 😢

[@aquiledelrosa]

As a game dev i research every single sucess, and failure. Why things go right and wrong is very fascinating, first you need to start into "what exactly is the wrong?" it may sound strange but there are plenty of variables on this. It can be: "not earn enough" (But there are two things on this, not enough as they want/not enough to sustain itself) "player count" (It is tricky bc there are whales, so low numbers dont equate 1:1 to low earning) "others" (Ip ownership or another burocratic thing) You can apply this riddle in two stages too, or the problem is the dev or the product itself (Dev being money expectation or other thing that makes the dev want to stop), product (Cost more than earn, be a bad product in general, need constant repair, etc...) "Be innovative" isnt a problem, have a bad product is THE problem, baldurs gate 3 is very different than baldur 2, and some others games, but is a good product in general, the idea of knockout city dont be able to generate identity is a HEAVY problem, because it will forcefully define the game as a simple game, and simple games needs simple(low) budget. Be a simple game isnt = to failure, see amongs us, is a simple game, but the player make it somewhat complex, good players could do knockout somewhat complex, but again, going back to: simple games needs simple budget. League of legends, Overwatch, apex, what all have in common? classes, that makes the game complex. I tryed to think into a game without class to give as an example, but most of them have, that whats gives identity to a game, balatro kinda have with decks, and items, binding of isaac, with itens and characters, same with vampire survivor and brotato. They could implement a class system without removing the identity of the game. In the end, what i legit think was the problem? Simple the devs, Shit hitted the fan with bad decisions, the community was saying what they should do, and they dont listened, guys games, are products, and thats the problem when devs cant see this, you must at some extent listen what your consumer wants, if you see why ppl are asking x or y, you can, at least, try to understand the root of the problem, and boom you will have an answer. But, they decided to cut the loss of the product insted of work around and improve what it lacks. Game market is a fucking shithole bc there arent almost any in-between, or the company goes full corpo greed, or the indie dev goes full artist hippie, both sides have things that should be in balance for the sake of the product/art. But is hard to see good examples of this, one i can recall is no man sky and terraria, but both lacks on dlcs (To get more investment), at least the updates generally sells more games, providing more stimulus to continuing updating.

[@yukiminying2634]

Just came across your channel today. Loved your delivery and your editing of the video. It flow outstanding well alongside the quirky edits. Can't wait to see more videos from you. Keep being you and stay hydrated.

[@sugarfreejelly5577]

I know how it feels to lose a game like that. Omega Strikers was the only PvP game that I could truly say I fell in love with, and it just... didn't retain enough players. The issue with a Free to play game is that it's just as easy to drop as it is to pick up. Because of that there's not many people willing to cross the difficulty curve as they are when they have their money in it. This is unlike in say GGS where you're incentivized to push through the curve since you already spent the money on it.

[@barriakarl]

I still cant believe OS didn't make it. Ngl some of my hope for gaming died then, that game had so much potential.

[@Jo-wr1dz]

I loved this game fr. I was very good at this game but i think the thing that really killed it for me was the fact u could hold fully charged balls for basically forever and it madd it almost impossible to even predict or react to pink balls (pause) being thrown at u in point blank range. And to top it off everything else mentioned in this video

[@Arch_TheGlassman]

I still blame EA entirely for the Pay to Play launch

[@usernamegenerico]

It's really impressive that you made this video without mentioning what was many people's introduction to the game: The trailer. The trailer had the extremely interesting premise of character archetypes from various different styles of games converging in a single one. There were SO many people that wanted to play as Princess Charm, only for it to turn out Princess Charm was never actually a part of the game itself. It was misleading and therefore mismarketed from the start.

[@TrapQ]

Dear Knockout City when you are ready to be back 👍it will be appreciated

[@deljonfinister3598]

Short answer: Great advertising for this game✅ Players checked game out ✅ Players finish trying it out ✅

[@Datweebboi]

There's one game that I still come back to. It's a vampire battle royale game called Vampire the Masquerade Bloodhunt. The game is free to play on both PC and PS5. Unfortunately due to the game not being successful the Studio stopped development. The game's cross play was never finished so PS5 can only team up with PS5, PC can only team up with PC and there is no cross save. It currently has a free battlepass and when you're done with the battle pass the game gives you tokens for the game's store for outfits, hair, and other things. The game is currently supported by a community of gamers that do events for the game so game can stay alive. They recently celebrated the game's 2 year anniversary.

[@PatrickHanson1]

The fact you only have 37k subs is wild. The quality is crazy. you deserve more

[@suryaanshsingh589]

8:10 my guy really used the LBP respawn sound.

[@meatballsyes3854]

all of this packed into genji ball

[@CreemSmile]

Tf2 dodgeball did it first

[@namedless]

Ngl real life did it first

[@middyjohn]

i dont play this game but the bit about low ceiling and faide really resonated with me, I play games that have these ceiling like smash bros melee rivals of aether apex legends one common thing is that they give you a lot of defensive and offensive option for EVERY characters, its sick when you pull it off but respect when you lose to it

[@SuperHeroTiger]

I’m in such awe over the high quality of your videos! The editing is so pleasing, well done. And I loved the deep dive into this game, to be honest I didn’t know that much about it but the whole situation was fascinating. Thanks for another awesome video!

[@CreemSmile]

Thanks so much man, I really appreciate that :))

[@Enzoh-RL]

I bought it when it first came out. I decided to play it again today. But they shut down the servers. It was an amazing game, and I'm sad to see it go. But overall, it's an amazing video. The private servers are fun, though.

[@Angyl]

creem uploaded time to marvel at his edits. (that genji slicing bit was sick)

[@sarcastikkarma9937]

That "adding more depth to game" so it can be mpre appealing and engaging without ruining the simple fun, was already in the game. Superpowers! That LTM was the most fun i had playing the game ever. And it obviously wasn't just me, i remember (season 2 or 3) when they did a pole for what LTM should come back for the end of the season, Superpowers got like, 90% of the votes lol. I think they should've worked on either making it a permanent mode, or try and work it into normal 3v3. I think it really would've helped with keeping new and old players playing if it stuck around.

[@Pedstoxic]

roblox death ball got more player retention and they play almost same concept

[@Joel-oy5zc]

Even if this game ended up being the best thing in the world, i still wouldn't have given it a fair chance because of that reveal trailer. Rather than just telling you what the game is about, they went full "corporate focus tested safe mode" and just said "Here's a bunch of random game genres presented in the most cliché ways possible! If you love these, you'll love our game, so play it!". It's both misleading and insulting. Based on what one of the devs said in this comment sections, that's not even their own fault. It was entirely EA doing classic EA greed.

[@Swiftshot_the_Autobot]

Good video, but I wish you talked about how toxic the player base became towards the end of it's life. I was there and there were players that wanted to protest the game just because the devs made it so you couldn't spam taunts 24/7 and then the players were upset that they couldn't taunt over dead players bodies. Which also made a lot of players leave too

[@Nyanpuddi]

i understand not going free to play in the beginning but with the limited options they should have had a 5 dollar options without all those dressup stuff so ppl can just play it for fun with friends without a big investment just like with among us was only 4 dollar (atleast in my country it was 4 euros so im not sure) a lot of ppl just played it a couple times

[@joejones6353]

Instead of just adding new maps, I think they also could have added new modes. That way, you could mix up the way people play without changing the core mechanics. A capture the flag mode would have been pretty cool. Having to get in the enemy side of the map, then having everyone target one guy when they get the flag.

[@terminate_all]

There was a mode like that pretty much, it was a bank ball that you had to hold to gain points, and everyone would obviously target the person that had it.

[@D9ADSH0T]

Top-tier edits my man 👌 Thanks to you, I found many new games that scratch my fast-paced movement itch.

[@GothJesus]

One battlepass model i loved was RE Versus, you paid 1 time and each new season just added more to it instead of you having to buy one each season

[@CreemSmile]

Ohhh that's kinda cool

[@philtkaswahl2124]

This vid came out randomly in my feed and I didn't even play this game, but I decided to give it a watch and your presentation style was engaging. Definitely subbing to see what else you cook up in the future.

[@TheBas008]

Was literally thinking about this and then you posted a vid. I wish servers could come back in some capacity. Maybe a brand new revamp of the game. All the game design principles work, it's just that it didn't get enough initial traction

[@luchadorfromthefuture2077]

Blud seriously played LA noire near the end LMOA

[@okayokay3771]

I think they could have done more with the ball mechanics. Like a tackle in ball mode can be a dash and it could be charged. If you did it in mid air you could launch yourself and bounce of walls to gain momentum to go further. Features like these would’ve kept me playing the game

[@TemmiePlays]

3,000 hour plsyer here. They never listened to the players. they surrounded themselves with obsequious teens in thf Discord - ones more interested in memes than the game. We brought up issues, and instead of fixing them , they told us what we wanted instead - thats another take from Blizzard they borrowed. The new map 1 sucked, first new ball was literally the worst ,( soda ball ,) and it was hard to keep hyped for new content, when thr Movie Nights theme was terrible. we never get a new ball until the season they're killing it off + it turns out to be s great ball. if they started with boomerang it might have been better. they didn't care for feedback and continually told us we were wrong about what we wanted to play. lol

[@mslittlecutie.]

i was so used to staring at the genji model during the ad read segment that i forgot it wasnt an overwatch video lol

[@Kre1gen]

Honestly other channels' edits are all the same but yours are a breath of fresh air (for me) other creators are like sunny v2's edits but honestly this is good

[@Kre1gen]

Mocap suit like BADGER❤

[@gxalcremieshiny4229]

This reminds me of Ninjala (yall remember that?) The vibes were similar, and I think knockout City tried to go for the same idea (ofcourse in an original way) Ninjala failed though, as again, the gameplay was too simple, despite the weapons and maps they added, and the game was free to play from the beginning! So I think games like this are doomed bad servers at launch + bad marketing ruins these types of games there weren't any ads for the games, so most people don't even know about their existence and I think they need like a proper way to keep their playercount (although I cannot think of a way how)

[@plushdragonteddy]

immediately dropped a like when i saw how much effort was put into the visuals, and i didn’t regret it for a second. and the audio editing?? chef’s kiss. good stuff!

[@Zndu]

Your edits are insane. Subscribed.

[@michel0dy]

Hey, just came across this video and I wanted to say I really enjoy your video style!

[@catastoph2939]

I cant remember if i played this game during the beta, or shortly after release. What i do remember is becoming extremely discouraged at the random clans that would pop up in casual matches. Blew my mind how sweaty they could be, in such a casual game. Quickly i adapted to the sweats, but i didnt want to sweat. I didnt want to tryhard in a game about dodgeball , i just wanted to have fun. Mastering catches, tosses, and the various balls was fun to learn and experiment with

[@Ommelanden]

I have not played this but as a Team Fortress 2 player and mapper, I think adding several new (more complex) gamemodes would do wonders for this game They could be played alongside the simplistic base game and satisfy both casual and more competitive minded players

[@lawrencelopez9839]

they could have added parkour and skill that you get when leveling

[@No_Lucks_Given]

This is such a funny example of how stupid gamers are. They complain about how free to play games are ruining the industry. How pay to win is bad and blah blah blah, then when a game comes out that's not free to play they complain that it should be free to play. You can't make this stuff up.

[@OrangeSheepPlayz]

This is a great video! Good job!

[@hyperfluxhd7585]

its sad that its gone, i was really good at this game i literally have clip bro i coulda gone pro 😭

[@THElapio]

I played this game but it got boring to me

[@TheaArtsFox]

nice video. I prefer the videos of people who experienced things to have a honest opinion, over the ones who only do "what went wrong" without even have cared for such things. keep the good job! i even feeled interested in the game after watching the video. for the LAg thing... I always have seen it as a way people use to legally cheat, over all when games have dedicated regional servers.

[@BroskiMcBrosef]

I got diamond ranked when it first came out, wish the game lasted

[@TheOblomoff]

I only played it f2p once or twice. The presentation was good, sure. But - I have no attachment to the ball smacking sport, it's only played heavily in America schools. And then, I thought: 'You can just catch it all? That means somebody in a 1v1 would get massively bodied' and I don't like those kinds of games, at least in mobas/shooters you get a few shots off before the bodying concludes. At least that's the idea. Still, it's great that there are people who do the impossible, find a way to make private servers version after closing.

[@rodom-kr6xh]

This guy puts in WAYY to much effort for the amount of subs he has

[@CreemSmile]

I appreciate that man, what can I say I love the craft haha

[@TESCODELIVERYMAN]

1:33 if your pc cant handle having a few chrome tabs open while gaming, I think you need an upgrade

[@JORDXI]

I was one of the beta players from day one, ngl the game was so fun and all that. The maps were just so good, the sunset, futuristic city’s, the flying cars u name it.

[@Destiny041]

Knockout city and Hyperscape are my favourite games that disappeared but there's one that I still miss, Rumbleverse, I loved the idea of a battle royale with lucha libre/UFC fighting, I hope someday someone make a similar game 😭

[@Jackentines]

I miss this game so much. I also have the beta installed still. The reason I stopped playing was because of how bad the servers got after official launch. Felt like I couldn’t play a single match without horrible lag.

[@UltravioletNomad]

Me and my friend were more than willing to shill out 20 buck or maintain Game Pass for this game. In fact I think youre putting to much stock in Free to Play, Smash, Splatoon, and most fighting games get away with having a hefty price tag and paid expansions over micros. Our biggest problems were 1) We just could not find a third player to join in with us 2) The net code issues 3) We immediately got outplayed by more dedicated players after the beta. If you look at that playcount chart, its not an immediate drop off after the beta, its a bell curve. I garuntee you that represents two things. One, players trying it and immediately deciding it wasnt their game, and two, people getting their friends to squad up and those friends not jiving with it. I guess what Im saying is the peak player count was when word of mouth from the players that immediately gravitated to it kicked in, but it just didnt grab those people and it immediately started a down trend. And all your other points illustrate perfectly why that would happen, unless you are jazzed about mastery of this one core mechanic there is nothing for you to come back to. Man, this feels like a dope party game that youd use to bust out when all your friends from school would come over. Its a shame it couldnt just live AS THAT, theres tons of rad niche indie games that still have small servers up... But even Splatoon 1 had to go away eventually (based Pretendo keeping games alive)

[@flawlessfire751]

holy shit you timestamped the sponsor i love you

[@ur_just_v]

I think there is one more reason, if you check steam survey it says most people are rocking GTX 1650 ,all these multiplayer games runs around 60-90 fps even on low leading to bad gameplay, whereas games like cs and valo runs at 180 fps which compliment most 144hz monitor they have

[@sir4eyes]

Biggest thing to affect this game outside of staleness was the game losing F2P status after its first month. About 80% of my friends got their fix that month, and when they took away access, they didnt feel like it was worth. On top of that, the content upon release didn't feel worth it and there wasn't enough variety gameplay wise. Those initial decisions killed any hope they had for a successful game long-term

[@ashtxn.66]

your editing is so good

[@SpaceGamer07]

I was able to snag a test run ticket and while the game was fun, its story was really barebones during beta. There wasn’t really any character to obsess over and little substance to garner fan content as far as I’ve seen. Even if games like Fortnite’s story weren’t emphasized much, they’re able to sustain a community because of how accessible the game is. I think knockout city would’ve done better if they made the game affordable. The 20 dollar price tag at launch just wasn’t appealing for a game that would have you spending more for things like cosmetics. I found that I just couldn’t get attached to the game overall because there’s nothing to tie me to the game besides gameplay. Which wasn’t nearly enough for me to fork up 20 dollars.

[@zhen1651]

the editing style and ur avatar makes this video so engaging, never clicked subscribe so fast

[@jamall7003]

I loved that game so much! It's like I stop playing just for like one month because other games came out and the game gets removed like whyyyyyy?

[@Kyptoric]

good documentary, but some very wrong things about the game's skill ceiling were being claimed here, and since they could turn many potential new players away from trying out the game in the private build, i feel i had to say something: saying the game doesn't have sufficient complexity or depth is a COLOSSAL misunderstanding on your part. you seem to have merely grasped the basics of the game then suddenly decided that was as far as it could go. it's easy to dumb the game down to "lole catch and throw balle", but just like any other game, a big chunk of the complexity comes not from the obvious applications of mechanics, but the other ways in which they can be used to have much more nuanced and subtle effects. this applies to everything, from throwing, catching, tackling and even movement or positioning. even passing the ball, which is just 1 button, can be a relatively deep skill, as there are good and bad times to pass, most of which are very nuanced and hard to figure out without experience. the problem is that you don't obtain the opportunity to use this stuff until you get better, because your opponents just are not skilled/knowledgeable enough for a meta game to emerge. to simplify it a little bit, when you get opponents past a certain skill level, you'll find that just randomly throwing the ball at them stops working, and even higher up you'll find that even extremely fast/good throws get consistently caught, and that fakes stop working too and even get punished. its only at that point that you start to discover what the real game is. to just barely scratch the surface, you will begin to, for example, throw balls for purposes other than hitting the opponents, and catch for reasons other than catching an incoming ball. you will get purposefully tackled to create an opening, and realize how dangerous letting the enemy have the high ground can be. there is a plethora of mindgames, punishes, and strategies you can employ to play the game at a high level. this creates nearly endless room for skill expression and different playstyles, especially at the top level of play, to the point that top level players feel very unique and distinct from one another. not to mention that, even without all this, catching or throwing the ball at a basic level is much harder than you've made it seem. facing off against a much better player, you'll find that they'll often get very good throwing angles on you, while making it nearly impossible for you to get any good angles on them. they usually won't need any advanced play to dispatch less skilled opponents, they will just be able to fundamentally throw and catch better, at better timings and from better positions. lastly, unlike what you seemed to claim or imply, there's plenty of useful tech much more complicated/deep than self-passes you didn't mention/didn't know such as n-drops, G's, helixes, or ball drops, just to name a few. if you're a viewer reading this after being discouraged from playing due to what was said in the video, just know that it is objectively not true.

[@Phloxix]

I always knew this game was doomed to fail. Especially when it wasn’t released to be f2p.

[@macolombe_]

I had played the game when it first came out with my brother, we had so much fun playing it till there was a price tag hung over to a game deemed as “free”. My brother had bought it but I didn’t. I feel like that’s what caused some of its downfall. The game being labeled as free and then when you get through the tutorial, there’s a price tag on it. It’s sad, really

[@Sickmmaner]

This shit was SO UNFAIR MAN! I LOVED THIS GAME! This should have POPPED THE FUCK OFF!

[@thomas1peck736]

me: never using the opera gx store before this video. "Wait a tf2 theme?"" GET OVER HERE"

[@strawhatnegro]

Man i loved this game, me and my cousin would play this game literally everyday. We also played the open beta but then when we realized u had to pay 20 bucks to continue to play the game we quit. But after a while we came back to it and it was so much fun. Wish this game could come back smae with rumbleverse

[@yashA.456]

It's funny that you talk about the 20$ pricetag as a failure during the time of K.O.-Citys release, because I would gladly bet that in todays inflated gaming market, that same 20$ price tag would get them so many players. But yea if you think about it, back then games were only starting to become more filled with those scummy monetization practices like releasing a not finished product and having a paid DLC in planning, so for us gamers it probably looked a lot worse since we compared it with other 60-70$ games instead of the now 90-130$ games. In reality K.O.-City 20$ price tag is one of the most reasonable price tags in recent gaming history, especially if you think about the fact it's published by EA lol. I do agree on launch servers being absolutely horrendous and there being an abyssmally low skill ceiling in the game. That is actually a thing I wish I could rub a genie lamp for or something. I seriously hope one day more gamedevs will understand that MOVEMENT MECHANICS are important and unarguably one of the big foundations of getting a lot of players to play a 1st/3rd person video game (honestly not even only those games, even 2D sidescrollers like Mario, Rayman Origins etc.). It just needs to feel good to play. It also doesn't need to be insanely high skill ceiling or super intricate and complex mechanics. Just simple stuff, if you have a Dasl make it increase the length of how far you can jump like in Mario 64 for example if you press Dash and Jump at the same time etc. Simple mechanics like that GO A MILE if you implement them correctly into your system, but devs don't give a fuck about playablity of their own games. Whenever I see a new game the first thing I always notice is whether or not the playable character is walking around in a clunky way or not. Haven't had a lot of games recently where simply moving felt good.

[@dasamflo]

I loved the game. Not many games had me grinding about 60 hours in 2 weeks. And then it died and no one talked about it anymore. And the most frustrating is that I got very good (like self passing and catching nearly every ball and most of the time having k/d over 10) but for nothing, except being called sweat in disgrace. And I really really loved that game die hard. But waiting 30 Minutes for a ranked game and still not finding a game multiple times killed it finally for me

[@rookless4121]

Bro me and my bois loved this game so much! Had some great times with it and the only thing I wish I did more was the ranked matches because we were pretty decent. Self passing was also a really fun technique.

[@ObsoletePerson]

I know how it feels for your darlings to die a slow death. 'Knightfall', 'Omegalodon', and so many more... Here's hoping you get some groups together for some 'Knockout City' games.

[@GuiltlessGear]

Knockout City? I remember seeing and then immediately forgetting about that.