Scramble Knights Online, Funktronic Labs’ top-down action RPG, launched on October 26 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, with Game Pass access from day one. It looks very different from the game first shown to players. It began as a PvP battle royale called Scramble Knights Royale, and the studio rebuilt it into a co-op “MMO-Lite” after its first public playtest.
What’s in the launch
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, with Xbox Play Anywhere support, so one purchase works on console, PC and supported handhelds.
- Game Pass: Included with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass from day one.
- Price: The Xbox Store listing shows $12.99.
- Co-op: Play solo or with up to four players in a shared online world, the kingdom of Terracott.
- Dungeons: Dungeons inspired by Zelda, with puzzles, secrets and boss fights.
- Town Square hub: A place to upgrade gear, go fishing, meet other players and form parties.
- Chicken Mode: If you die, you watch the rest of your party as a chicken.
- Some PvP remains: The store page says other parties of knights can run into yours and fight over resources, and it also mentions PvP invasions.
From battle royale to co-op
In a post on Xbox Wire, the studio explains that Scramble Knights started out mixing questing, monster hunting and dungeon looting with chaotic fights against other players. The playtest showed a split reaction. Players liked the world and exploring it, but the battle royale side frustrated them. Lobbies emptied out, a large streamer quit within minutes, and one comment kept coming up: “I’d play this if it wasn’t for the PvP.”
Funktronic first tried other PvP modes, including Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch. According to the post, the team kept being drawn back to the moments between fights. Founder Eddie Lee’s phrase “Adventure With Friends” became the guiding idea, and the studio moved forward with an MMO-Lite prototype. In that version, players meet in town, post missions to a quest board, sign up together and head out as a group. The “Royale” name went once the game stopped being a battle royale.
The scale of the change stands out. The team says it had spent about three years on the PvP version and then turned that world and combat system into an MMO in under six months. Development took nearly four years in total.
Studios rarely make this kind of change in public. A team that hears “the core loop isn’t working” will usually adjust the existing design rather than switch genres. Funktronic kept the art, combat and world and replaced the structure around them, which sets this launch apart from a typical Game Pass release. Players who skipped the playtest because of the battle royale label may want to give it another look.
One caveat: the store page lists the game as a Game Preview and calls it a work in progress that may still change. Funktronic sends players to scrambleknights.com for status updates and feedback.
Source: Xbox Wire – Scramble Knights Online: Changing Genres to Save a Game