Rumbleverse, the free-to-play battle royale brawler inspired by professional wrestling, is shutting down in February, Epic Games and developer Iron Galaxy Studios announced on Tuesday. The game will go offline on February 28, approximately six months after the game’s official launch.
“The remaining weeks will be a time to celebrate the competitive spirit you brought to this game,” Iron Galaxy said. “There will be more live streams to play select games with the developers and let them pull back the curtain to share behind-the-scenes moments from the creative process that built this city.”
But the reality is that everything closes at the end of February. Any player who has spent money on the game – including the purchase of a Battle Pass or the in-game currency, Brawlla Bills – is eligible for a refund, on any platform. “We will soon be sharing an FAQ page with additional refund information,” Iron Galaxy said.
“We most sincerely hope that this news does not mark the end of Rumbleverseadded Iron Galaxy, in a more personal open letter to the game’s gaming community. “You may not have seen the Rumble in its final form yet. If we can welcome people back to the deck of the battle barge, we hope you’ll be there, strapped in and ready to take your rightful place in the cannon.
Rumbleverse is a melee-based variant of the Battle Royale genre. Players threw themselves into Grapital City, a large map with multiple points of interest, and filled their pockets with buffs, power-ups, and other items. The adversaries were suplexed from the top of the skyscrapers and/or thrown into the water to be eliminated.
Even though Rumbleverse was developed to be as watchable as it was playable, the game failed to gain much traction on Twitch, which may have sealed its fate – along with other battle royale titles. Also on Tuesday, Electronic Arts announced the closure Apex Legends Mobilelaunched in May 2022 and ending development on battlefield mobilea project announced in April 2021.
Rumbleverse was first announced at The Game Awards 2021, although a proposed early access launch for January 2022 was postponed so that Iron Galaxy could tighten up and polish the game. It officially launched on August 11 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
A Nintendo Switch release was noted (overseas) earlier this month, but now looks unlikely to be released.
Iron Galaxy, founded in 2008, is best known for its games Diving Kick (2013) and Extinction (2018), and for his work on killer instinctthe second and third seasons of Xbox Game Studios.