When Knockout City launched on 21st May it did so in a rather interesting fashion with something called “Block Party” which made it free to play until yesterday, 30th May.

With the Block Party now over many just assumed that the game would simply flip to being a paid experience and, while this is the case, there’s now a wrinkle in things as new players can still give it a go for free.

“Block Party is over, but new players to Knockout City can still start brawlin’ for free! If your friends are just joining us, they’ll be able to play for free and level up to Street Rank 25 before purchasing the game. That’s also enough game time to teach them to pass the ball,” reads an announcement.

This seems to be a smart move on the part of developer Velan Studios and publisher EA. The Block Party helped this relatively small multiplayer title to bring in two million players and, since then, many have been wondering how it will keep players in and attract fresh blood.

This new system is rather clever as it gives players a decent chunk of the game to experience before asking anyone to make a purchase.

That said we can’t help but feel like both the Block Party and this implementation are just both new age wordings for the tried and tested demo. While certain programmes like Steam’s Game Festival is trying to revive the concept of demos, they’re still sorely lacking overall.

Knockout City is available on just about every platforms – Nintendo Switch, PC (Epic Games Store, Origin and Steam), PlayStation and Xbox. The game is also included with EA Play and, by extension, Xbox Game Pass.

The official account for the game even points out that Game Pass is having another discount for new members:

Can you keep a secret? A chonky little armadillo posted in our Discord that you can get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate right now for just $1 for the first three months! “Get Knockout City for just $1!” they typed… and that’s the last anyone has ever heard from them. pic.twitter.com/rBGymGzzw3

— Knockout City (@knockoutcity) May 30, 2021