Mario Kart Live Dev Interested In Returning To Knockout City Universe “When The Time Is Right”

The live service multiplayer shut down last June

by Liam Doolan 11h ago

Although the free-to-play multiplayer brawler Knockout City shut down last June, developer Velan Studios is still interested in revisiting this new IP one day.

In an official update about its “big week” where it announced a new multiplayer shooter Midnight Murder Club and the VR title Bounce Arcade, it included a brief message for Knockout City fans, mentioning how it would “love” to return to this particular world when the “time is right”:

“As an indie studio, we love our ability to lean into ideas that excite us, and rest assured we love KO City as much as you do and want to bring it back, *just not yet*. We spent over four years crafting Knockout City the first time around, and we don’t want to rush the process for the next game in that universe. We love that world and can’t imagine not going back to it at some point, when the time is right.”

When Velan announced last February it was shutting down the game, it mentioned how it was unable to “attract and retain” enough players to make it sustainable, even though it had over 12 million people try it out.

This latest update about Knockout City follows reports of layoffs at the same studio earlier this year in March after a “major project” was axed by one of its external partners, resulting within a reorganisation of the team. The same team previously worked with Nintendo on Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.

Would you be interested in returning to the universe of Knockout City? Let us know in the comments.

[source velanstudios.com, via gonintendo.com]

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He’s been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He’s also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.

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