Knockout City

Knockout City is a team-based competitive multiplayer video game whose gameplay rules resemble dodgeball. The player's goal is to attack enemies from the opposing team by knocking them out with a ball. There are several types of balls in the game, including the Moon Ball, which allows the player holding the ball to jump higher, and the Bomb Ball, which is a time bomb that explodes on impact. A player can also throw another player as a ball.

When ready to throw a ball, the player targets and locks on to an enemy; holding down the throw button charges up the ball for a faster shot that can be more difficult to catch. A successful throw depends not on the accuracy or the precision of the throw, but on the player's positioning and strategy. Players can dodge or catch a ball that is thrown at them, and they will respawn after getting hit by a ball twice. The player can also fake throw a ball, and tackle an opponent holding a ball.

Knockout City was developed by Velan Studios, which had previously released Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit in 2020. The team, which has about 85 employees, spent four years developing the game. Velan Studios described the game as a "dodgebrawl" title, and its CEO, Karthik Bala, added that the team chose dodgeball to be the game's core gameplay loop because it was considered to be an "intuitive" sport. The game was designed to be accessible for both newcomers, while complex enough for competitive players. Velan Studios built an engine named Viper to power the game and created a programming script named V-script, which aimed at countering network latency.

Publisher Electronic Arts announced in March 2019 that it had signed a publishing deal with Velan Studios. It was published under the publisher's EA Originals initiative, which aims at supporting independent games. The game was officially announced via a Nintendo Direct on February 17, 2021. A beta for the game was held from April 2, 2021, to April 4, 2021, for PC and consoles.

Knockout City received generally positive reviews upon release according to Metacritic. Some reviewers compared Knockout City with Rocket Arena, a 2020 game also published by Electronic Arts.

Knockout City was nominated for "Best Multiplayer Game" at The Game Awards 2021, and "Online Game of the Year" at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.