Knockout City developer Velan Studios has announced that the online dodgeball game will go free-to-play and be self-published by them starting with the arrival of Season 6 this spring. EA will no longer be the publisher of the game, which originally launched on 21 May 2021.

In addition, Knockout City Season 5 Greatest Hits will begin on 1 March 2022. It will be a celebration of the best that the first year of Knockout City had to offer, such as Superpowers, Chain Reaction, Basketbrawl, and more, including some surprises.

In its blog post, Velan Studios said:

The other big change happening over the first few seasons of Year 2 is that we (Velan Studios) are going to be self-publishing Knockout City! From the day we founded our studio, we’ve worked to deliver revolutionary new game experiences to you, our amazing community of players.

We couldn’t have introduced Knockout City to the world without the incredible support of EA Originals, but now as we switch to free-to-play, the natural next step is for us to take over publishing responsibilities and work even more closely with our community.

We have exciting plans for Knockout City, and bringing publishing in-house will allow us to fully realize our vision for the long-term future of this game. There’s so much to look forward to, because this is just the beginning.

Those who purchased Knockout City before the start of the upcoming free-to-play Season 6 will receive a special Season 6 Loyalty Bundle that will include exclusive legendary cosmetics, XP boosts, and 2,000 Holobux.

Knockout City is available now for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam and Origin.