In a surprise move, Epic Games have announced that they’ve acquired Rocket League developers Psyonix, and will be bringing the car football phenomenon to the Epic Games Store later this year. Naturally, this leaves Rocket League’s fate on Steam in question.
In an official press release on the Psyonix website, the developers talk about how this move will help the game grow in the future, while stating that nothing is expected to change in their short term plans.
“In the short term, nothing will change at all. We’re still committed to providing Rocket League with frequent updates that have new features, new content, and new ways to play. In the long-term, we expect to bring Rocket League to the Epic Games store and to leverage our new relationship to grow the game in ways we couldn’t do on our own before.”
The wording of the initial press release was so unclear that an editor’s note had to be added, along with a separate tweet, saying the following: “Rocket League is and remains available on Steam. Anyone who owns Rocket League through Steam can still play it and can look forward to continued support.”
Epic Games themselves even went one step further. In a statement given to US Gamer, Epic clarifies that an announcement regarding Rocket League’s future on Steam hasn’t been made yet: “We are continuing to sell Rocket League on Steam, and have not announced plans to stop selling the game there. Rocket League remains available for new purchasers on Steam, and long-term plans will be announced in the future.”
In addition to that, Epic Games wanted to assure Steam players that they “will still be able to play Rocket League on Steam with all of the content they’ve previously purchased, same as always,” even after Rocket League launches on the Epic Games Store.
It’s a confusing situation, possibly because an actual decision hasn’t been made yet regarding the fate of Rocket League on Steam. The deal between Psyonix and Epic hasn’t even been finalised yet, as it remains subject to customary closing conditions. The deal is expected to be closed by early June 2019 at the very latest.
Plans are clearly in motion though. Epic haven’t flat-out denied that Rocket League will get pulled from Steam in the future, and the fact they mention there will be an announcement regarding long-term plans suggests there will be some sort of change coming. They just might not know what that is right now.
Psyonix hitching themselves to Epic’s wagon seems like a wise move in terms of growth though, largely because Rocket League will be able to pilfer some of that Fortnite dollar to grow their own eSports scene. With the Rocket League Championship Series taking place next month, it won’t be long before we see Epic’s influence in action.
That said, Rocket League was one of the first games to fully support cross-platform play, with gamers from every platform able to matchmake against one another. Locking the game behind one PC storefront seems like it would run counter to the progress made with regards to cross-platform.
Another question that’s been raised by Twitter is that if the game does get pulled from Steam, what does that mean for all the Steam Workshop maps that have been created? How will mod support be affected in the event of a full transition to the Epic Games Store? Just saying that Steam players can “look forward to continued support” is too much of a vague statement when there’s plenty of questions to be raised.
What do you think about this Epic Games and Psyonix situation? Let us know in the comments below.
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