The haters were right,” RPG devs decide after spending 3 years on a battle royale only to cancel it and pivot on Steam: “It’s not quite an MMO, but it’s also more than a co-op game
Scramble Knights Royale is Scramble Knights Online now. The game was in development at Funktronic Labs as a battle royale, but the developers have completely reversed course and admitted their detractors were right all along. “A live-service Battle Royale was not going to work for us,” the studio says in a Steam update.
In an accompanying YouTube video on the official Funktronic channel with a thumbnail displaying the words ‘the haters were right’ in big red text, studio co-founder Eddie Lee says the team had been “cooking this Zelda-inspired battle royale game” against tireless skepticism from people who questioned the idea of an indie studio releasing a battle royale in 2026. For three years, the developers stayed true to the original vision regardless, but eventually they discovered the numbers just weren’t numbering.
Lee says Funktronic did the math and reckoned you’d need “2-3,000 at the minimum, concurrent users, which is people online playing your game at the same time, to have optimal flow, optimal player liquidity, for everyone to have a nice experience,” and ultimately decided, “the numbers we need to succeed is going to be damn near impossible.”
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Instead of canceling the game altogether, the developers started figuring out how to pivot into another genre, and eventually Lee was presented with a vision for a “Monster Hunter-inspired MMO-lite experience,” and after some skepticism, he decided, “Holy shit this is it. I felt it, I felt that magic.”
Per the Steam update, the renamed Scramble Knights Online is now “a multiplayer adventure RPG about questing with friends in the shared online kingdom of Terracotta.
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“Explore a sprawling archipelago, embark on adventures, battle monsters, conquer dungeons, discover treasure, and get rewarded,” reads the description. “Then return home to upgrade your gear before setting out on your next journey.”
It sounds like Funktronic is still working out exactly how to market Scramble Knights Online, saying it’s “not quite an MMO,” but “more than a co-op game,” and settling on “a shared online experience where players can gather and adventure together.” It’ll have “challenging PvE encounters, charming quests, character building, and long-term progression with weapon and armor crafting.”
Thankfully for fans of the original Scramble Knights Royale, it sounds like the core ethos of the game remains unchanged. Funktronic says the conceit was always an ‘adventure with friends’, and that’ll still be the case with the rebooted project. Plus, although it’s mainly billed as a co-op game now, the developer confirms “PvP will still be part of the experience” despite the shift away from battle royale.
An early access release is planned for release in the fall, and Funktronic says you can expect a $15-$20 price tag.
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