3 shuttered online multiplayer games that we miss

Online multiplayer games aren’t new in any sense. As the Internet continued to progress, players found a way to come together to compete in their favorite games. Along the way, new games would supplant the old ones, causing developers to have to shift their focus to other titles. When online multiplayer games shut down, they often leave a community who were committed to a game they loved. Here are three games that were recently shut down, and fans still miss them to this day.

Knockout City

Everyone remembers playing dodgeball in school. You either hated it or loved it. Today, it may be classified as a form of bullying, but the “boink” sound of getting hit from out of nowhere lives on. At least it did for a moment via Velan Studios’ Knockout City. This was a free-to-play, team-based dodgeball game that quickly caught fire when it was released on May 21, 2021. The game was met with strong reviews and player counts initially, but that did not last. Two years later, Knockout City was heading into its ninth season but the servers were scheduled to be shut down on June 6, 2023.

Rumbleverse

The wild world of professional wrestling seems perfect for video game madness. That’s exactly what Rumbleverse was meant to be. This was a free-to-play battle royale game that featured professional wrestling as its main gameplay mechanic. Melee combat was the weapon of choice and each character had their own set of special moves. Rumbleverse featured both in-game purchases and a battle pass model. While this game did get some strong praise when it was initially released on August 11, 2022, it lasted only six months as the servers were shut down on February 28 that next year.

Dreams

Dreams is an interesting addition to this list. While it wasn’t a single or multiplayer game, Dreams was more of a creation suite that allowed aspiring creators to take a crack at making their own games. Released on February 14, 2020, it was a highly anticipated game from Media Molecule. It was awarded several different accolades for the product and received strong reviews. But it never truly picked up as a game that was played as frequently as some of the better-known online multiplayer games. Live support ended in September of 2023, even though online server support continued. Additional changes were intended to come, severely limiting what players were able to achieve in the game.