Rumbleverse Shutting Down in February, Refunds Will Be Issued

By Tim Bowman, January 31, 2023

A battle royale brawler is ending support after less than a year since its release.

Rumbleverse is shutting down on Feb. 28 at 10 a.m. CST, its developer Iron Galaxy Studios and publisher Epic Games announced on Tuesday, just six months after its launch. The free-to-play online game from the Chicago-based and independent Iron Galaxy is a different take on the battle royale genre, a fusion of a fighter, brawler and pro wrestling all coming together. After this February the game’s servers will be shut down and Rumbleverse will no longer be playable.

The game launched on Aug. 11, 2022 for the PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC through the Epic Games Store and GeForce Now. The game features cross-play and cross-progression across the different platforms.

Rumbleverse is all about creating a character called a champion and customizing them with creative outfits, skins and physical features. Up to 40 players get dropped on the map called Grapital City, beating each other up until one person remains as the winner.

Iron Galaxy and Epic Games will be offering refunds to any player who spent money on or inside the game. The in-game currency called Brawlla Bills was used to purchase the title’s Battle Pass and other items from its in-game store. Downloadable items like skins, cosmetics and emotes were available to buy from the store, which was updated every week with new options. The real cost of the game’s currency bundles ranged from 1,100 Brawlla Bills at $9.99, 2,500 at $19.99, 6,500 at $49.99 and 14,000 at $99.99. More information will be given by Iron Galaxy about the refund system at a later time.

Rumbleverse is currently on Season 2 of its Battle Pass, which started last November and was scheduled to last three months. The Battle Pass can no longer be purchased. There were two types of Battle Pass purchase options. The Premium Battle Pass had cost 1,000 Brawlla Bills and the Battle Pass+ had cost 2,400 Brawlla Bills that also included 20 unlocked tiers.

There will be one last update to the game, which is now out today. The Battle Pass has been unlocked for all players. The in-game store has been removed. All players can earn double experience points until the game’s closure to level up faster and unlock more items in the Battle Pass. Free content is now unlocked for all players like accessories and emotes. All game modes have also been unlocked to play except for Snowball Fight.

Leading up to the shutdown, developers and members from Iron Galaxy will be on various live streams of Rumbleverse talking about the game and sharing inside stories.

The studio hinted at possibly bringing the game back in some form in the future. “It is our sincerest hope that this news does not mark the end of Rumbleverse,” the company stated in an open letter to the community. “You may not yet have seen the Rumble in its final form. If we can welcome people back onto the deck of the battle barge again, we hope you’ll be there, laced up and ready to take your rightful place in the cannon.”

Rumbleverse was revealed in December 2021 during The Game Awards. In January 2022 the official launch had been delayed six months from February to last August. The game was also supposed to be launched in Early Access during that time but skipped that into a full release last summer. Rumbleverse did have some issues around the game’s launch with its servers and latency problems.

Iron Galaxy formed in August 2008 by Dave Lang after being the Technical Director at Midway Games. Adam Boyes, the former Vice President of Third Party Relations and Developer Technology Group at Sony Interactive Entertainment, joined the company in July 2016 as its CEO. Since November 2020 Boyes has been the studio’s co-CEO with Chelsea Blasko, who has been with Iron Galaxy for over a decade.

The studio’s other originally developed games include Divekick (2013), seasons 2-3 of Killer Instinct (2016) and Extinction (2018). Iron Galaxy has also worked on many ports and support on dozens of titles from Bionic Commando (2009) up to the most recent Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for PC last year. The company currently has more than 250 employees across locations in Chicago, Orlando, Austin and Nashville.

Rumbleverse was nominated for a D.I.C.E. Award for 2022 fighting game of the year, with the show taking place on Feb. 23. The other nominees are MultiVersus, SpiderHeck, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R and The King of Fighters XV.

Watch the game’s launch trailer: