It’s possible that Epic’s battle royale brawler Rumbleverse will be shuttled soon.
Tom Henderson shared on Twitter, simply, “Epic Games’ Rumbleverse will be shutting down at the end of February.” He also expects the game to be delisted later today, and an official announcement coming soon.
As of this writing, both the Rumbleverse official website and listing on Epic Games Store remains live. This rumor has also yet to be corroborated by other news sources.
While Epic Games is Rumbleverse’s publisher, it is being developed by Iron Galaxy Studios. Iron Galaxy is best known as a specialist when it comes to video game ports. However, they have also picked up a reputation as a fighting game developer. They managed ports of classic fighting games like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, and Darkstalkers Resurrection, and also did direct development work for Divekick and Killer Instinct Seasons 2 and 3.
While comparisons to Super Smash Bros proliferate, Rumbleverse seems to be more like a classic 3D Capcom fighting game, Power Stone. Players enter a full 3D space to fight each other, and can pick up weapons, as well as special items with effects like increasing life and other stats, or powering them up.
The element that is compared to Super Smash Bros, once again, is actually closer to another game, Epic Games’ own Fortnite. It has the battle royale convention of a shrinking arena, and players who can’t get back into the arena in time get eliminated.
Of course, if you take the aesthetic aside, what Rumbleverse is really most like is 24 Entertainment’s and Netease’s own version of a battle royale fighting game, Naraka Bladepoint. Naraka’s success does suggest that there is interest in a battle royale fighting game, and that interest crosses PC, console, and mobile platforms.
Rumbleverse had ambitions of its own, outdoing Naraka’s 60 player matches with its own 80 player matches. Epic was certainly hoping they could carry over what it had learned catering to casual games with Fortnite to a similar game, but without FPS mechanics. This is where the comparison to Super Smash Bros does make sense, as Epic and Iron Galaxy were hoping that a comedic presentation to the violence, much like in Super Smash Bros, would garner it a more casual audience, including children.
For now, we can’t confirm if Rumbleverse really is shuttering down but it’s generally accepted that its popularity immediately dropped after a surge of interest when it launched. We don’t know if it has recovered since, or in better or worse shape now. Epic does not disclose stats so only they would know how well the game has been doing.
