Live service games have been falling left and right lately, which is both extremely unfortunate for those who love the games (IE. You, if you're reading this) and inevitable due to there being so/too many right now... but just because a game doesn't have a large audience that spends a ton of money doesn't mean it shouldn't or can't live on! Especially when it comes to PC games.
Knockout City has officially shut down its servers on June 6th after being available for just over 2 years. A short period of time in the grand scheme of things, but it could have been sooner had their developers not opted to convert it into a free to play game and self publish after its initial launch. So how does the closure of Knockout City relate to Rumbleverse? Well, the developers were able to make one final update to the game before it "shut down for good," and it was a BIG one. One that could enable the game to be playable for years or even decades to come! How could a multiplayer game possibly survive after the developers officially shut it down though? The wild west of PC gaming is back with the reintroduction of community hosted Private servers!
For a list of everything included in the final KOC patch (there's more!), I'd suggest taking a look at the final official blog post above. For us Rumblers though, we're going to focus on this section here:
PLAY ON PRIVATE SERVERS!
"We’ve got your passport right here! Enjoy Knockout City anytime, locally or on private servers, with the Private Hosted Server Edition, free to download for Windows PCs! We’ve previously detailed everything you need to know to get started, including setup instructions and FAQs.
Looking for a scrap? You can always check the Knockout City Official Discord, or find your way to community-run corners of the city to get your dodgebrawl on. Even if you’re more of a solo act than an ensemble, you can fire up some Private Matches against Bot-controlled opponents anytime you need a fix. "
The free to play game has become free to host, which means the future of the game now sits in the hands of the dedicated player base. As long as someone wants to play a game of Knockout City, it can be done! Even a single player can play vs bots if they want, so a full match isn't required to enjoy the game. When a unique game gains a cult following on PC like KOC or Rumbleverse has, the players, if given the opportunity, will keep it alive long after official support has ended for the game.
Did you know you can still play the original 2003 Call of Duty on PC? Players have kept it alive with private servers for 20 years now!
The question is though: could Rumbleverse do the same? The answer is of course YES.... but.
A game of KOC only requires 6 players to start a full match, while Rumbleverse is designed for 40. That's a lot of spots to fill, and filling them doesn't come without its own set of issues.
Rumbleverse is a game about eliminating other players, whereas most other games allow all players to stay in the action the entire time whether you win or lose. Depending on the number of private servers active and how we could connect to them, the wait time could be long between matches with nothing to do but sit in the menu. Full player lobbies are insanely sweaty, which also means they can last far longer than an average casual match did.
We're all familiar with Rumbleverse bots that seemingly filled spots that other players could have. These walking perk generation units can still be used if the community is unable to gather a full lobby of course, and perhaps they could/should be a part of nearly every lobby in the end. Why? It would make starting a new game slightly faster, and also make it possible for newer players to win a few fights. Otherwise, you put a newer player up against 39 of the most dedicated Rumblers every game and see if they come back...
None of this accounts for the large changes required by the developers to make this happen unfortunately, which would cost them a fair bit of time and money to make this all possible. They would need to uncouple the game from Epic in several ways - create a new friends list, server browser, disconnect/disable the store, and more to make it possible to host private servers. The chances of them doing so are admittedly slim without any financial incentive on their end... but hey, there's still hope. Iron Galaxy is a great developer who's proud of the work they have done and we know their aim isn't to let it go to waste!
We had many full private lobbies (not servers) for competitive matches throughout our short time in Grapital City, with other players waiting for their chance to get in. There are certainly enough players to run a few matches at any given time, and some dedicated fans who would host if it were an option. With a highly concentrated player base spread between just a couple of servers, who knows... It could be the most fun we've had with 40 real people in each match for a while.
If this ever does become possible in the future, you better believe there will be a "Save'd Rumbleverse" server up on day one!
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