The battle royale and fighting game markets are about to get a little smaller. Barely half a year after its launch on August 11th, 2022, the wrestling battle royaleRumbleverseby developer Iron Galaxy is shutting down and refunding its customers their purchases. This news comes deep into its second season, after a fairly significant amount of content and changes have been added. Fans are shocked by this news, butRumbleversehas flung open its doors to try and make its final month as much of a celebration as possible. With paid items becoming free, experience being boosted significantly, and all past and future modes opening up, the game should get a fitting send-off before it goes offline on February 28th, 2023.
Rumbleversewas never at the top of the battle royale food chain, with much of its hype coming from the fighting game community and people who did not play much of the most popular battle royales. The point of it was to be an alternative, merging the unlikely duo of a 3D arena fighter with a free-to-play battle pass-oriented multiplayer title. Players could create their own unique fighting style through items, power-ups, and skills they find throughout a match. Featuring a strong core gameplay system made by the team that made the later seasons of the 2013Killer Instinct, it seemedRumbleversecould have become a mainstream melee battle royalesuccess. However, the deck may have been stacked against it from the beginning, and evidence for its short life can be seen as far back as its announcement.
RELATED:Rumbleverse: 5 Awesome Moves You Didn’t Know You Could Do
Rumbleverse Failed To Make A Good First Impression
Something that fighting games have had to grapple with for a while now is that “solid” doesn’t sell. No matter how good the core gameplay of a one-on-one fighter is, it needs to have good presentation to pull players in. Whether that entails aflashy cel-shaded art stylewith gorgeous animations, a roster of beloved characters, or some excellent single-player modes, solid mechanics are rarely enough. Unfortunately forRumbleverse, one of the biggest complaints about it has been its presentation.
Its CG reveal trailer that debuted at The Game Awards 2021 was dismissed by many because of its art style, and players still cite visuals as something they don’t like or just got used to.Rumbleverseresembles a deformed version ofFortnite, with characters divided into hyper-muscular, obese, and stick-thin body types. There’s a lot of customization available, but it’s difficult to escape the core art style without covering a character completely, and the body types are impossible to fully hide. With a lack of interest in the art style, a lot of players were naturally unmotivated to purchase cosmetic-focused battle passes, hurting the game’s primary source of income.
On top of that,Rumbleverse’s environments look ripped fromFortnite, just with a predominant city theme. WhereasFortnitehad years to build up a set of visually varied locations,Rumbleversetakes place on one island city with another resort island added later on. The game’s cartoonish art style, plain but spread-out HUD, and wacky vibes all just madeRumbleversecome off as anotherFortnite, but lacking the excellent costumes and crossovers that have given that game such a public presence. Even thoughFortnitedeveloper Epic Games itselfwas publishingRumbleverse, it was easy to dismiss this new title as a knock-off.
RELATED:10 Beginner Tips For Rumbleverse
Player Numbers in Rumbleverse Never Seemed High Enough
Instant apathy and strong competitors are bad problems to have, and things only got worse forRumbleverse. As news of what this game was and who was working on it spread through the fighting game community, some excitement did spark, but it wasn’t enough. Even though theclosed beta periods forRumbleverseresulted in a lot of positive word of mouth, it seemed like it was content creators doing most of the heavy lifting rather than official marketing.
More headaches were presented byMultiVersus, a similarly-titled free-to-play Warner Bros. platform fighter that caught mainstream attention thanks to its iconic roster. Being announced and released one month beforeRumbleversewas,MultiVersus’ simple proximity may have sniped the battle royale.
With eyes already being pulled away fromRumbleverse, the game was released on the Epic Games Store and several consoles with crossplay available. However, its lack of a major marketing push did the game no favors, and it seems to have been largely ignored among general audiences. The lack of a party queue in the betas didn’t help, nor did the initial launch only having Solos and Duos deployment options.Rumbleverseoften plays like a duel-oriented fighting gameso not supporting large teams does make sense, but it also excludes part of the battle royale audience who enjoy social play. Trios were added later but were only temporary until they were reopened alongside Quads for the game’s final month.
Players begin reporting more bots appearing inRumbleversegames about a month in, the usual time that a traditional fighting game sees its online player base drop off. Between all of this and the fact that its PC release was limited to the Epic Games Store,Rumbleversesimply didn’t have the player numbers or revenue to continue justifying its existence.Titles likeNaraka: BladepointandChivalryhave shown that melee-focused group combat can work, but those games probably also benefited from smaller development teams. Unfortunately, for all the talent and passion behind it, too much was working againstRumbleversefor it to be any more than a fun experiment.
Rumbleverseis now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S until June 11, 2025.
