Rumbleverse, the pro rasslin’ battle royale from Iron Galaxy and Epic Games, has a launch date: Aug. 11. The free-to-play game, which blends the last-one-standing whimsy of Fall Guys with the cartoon violence of a WWE PPV, will be available on PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Rumbleverse was revealed in December during The Game Awards 2021. The game’s maker, Iron Galaxy, is co-chiefed by Adam Boyes (formerly of Sony Interactive Entertainment) and Chelsea Blasko, who apparently came up with the idea for Iron Galaxy’s next big project after Extinction. “‘We should do rasslin’,’” Blasko said, according to Boyes, and so it was.
In Rumbleverse, 40 brawlers launch into a battle royale map and eliminate one another with melee attacks, scarfing up loot to buff up their stats as the ring shrinks. Iron Galaxy’s promotion so far lays into the over-the-top zaniness of the action, with costumed rasslers landing elbow drops from the top of skyscrapers.
The initial, public gameplay test for the “brawler royale” didn’t go so well, however, and a month later Iron Galaxy postponed the game’s anticipated early access launch indefinitely, sending refunds to those who had bought in early. Since then, Rumbleverse has gotten several playtesting sessions to shore up the experience.
Rumbleverse’s first season will begin a week after launch, Iron Galaxy says, with a Battle Pass delivering unlockable content to customize your luchador. The game’s Duos mode will also be available, “to anyone with the strength to download it,” the studio says, meaning tag-team as well as solo action in Grapital City.
“One thing we found out is that a lot of people that are crazy-good platform players, like Mario, Crash, Spyro fans, became the best players, very quickly,” Iron Galaxy co-CEO Adam Boyes told Polygon back in December. “So it’s as much, I think, about how you move around the world as it is your offensive integrity.”