In this article, FLuuMP looks at Epic Games purchase of Rocket League and looks to the potential future benefits that could arise from the acquisition.
Some exciting – or potentially terrifying depending on who you are – news has dropped in the past week regarding Rocket League. Epic Games have bought Psyonix and will be adding it to the Epic Games store.
We did a quick poll on Twitter to find out the initial reaction to the announcement. The results showed a more positive response compared to what we were reading over on Reddit:
When they first read it, a lot of people, myself included, missed that first part of the story. All over twitter people were asking what the big deal was having Rocket League sold in the Epic Games store.
No, it’s more than that. Epic Games have purchased Psyonix. This is a somewhat unprecedented event in recent years: a huge company like Epic Games buying a Top-15 game or whatever Rocket League is.
But what does this mean for the future of Rocket League and its players? What changes could we see in the coming years as Rocket League goes under the banner of Epic Games?
Well first, I should say that I actually made a video sort of jokingly asking the question: What if Epic Games owned Rocket League? It seems crazy to see it happening now. If you want check out that video, it’s exceptionally silly but you might enjoy it.
Anyway, here are some of the positive things that may be coming from this acquisition…
Item Shop
Psyonix already showed what this could look like with the esports shop. But why not have a full blown shop where people could buy new and old, limited time items, wheels, decals, cars, etc.?
Now, I’ll get into this a bit more below but this would be possible, especially if Rocket League is ported fully to the Epic Games store and that client.
Having an in-game currency across both Epic Games store and Steam could get confusing. However, reports suggest that Rocket League isn’t leaving Steam.
It’s hard to see how it can continue to operate on both platforms forever, though. We’ll see.
Creator Codes for Purchases
This would be pretty awesome for people like me. Imagine having the potential for creator codes through the Epic Games store!
Putting Rocket League on the Epic Games platform just opens up these possibilities in ways that weren’t possible through Steam.
Rocket league streamers have long discussed having in-stream drops, like RLCS has. Now this could be a possibility. But creator codes would honestly be amazing for content creators and for players alike.
Code fluump incoming guys… Or just go use spoodah’s code!
Rocket League Mobile
Ok, this one’s a stretch, I know.
I’m not just trying to ask: What if Rocket League was run just like Fortnite? Epic Games have to look at mobile as a possibility.
Now, I know some of you would hate this. There are potential complications with going mobile. But I do think Rocket League on mobile would be amazing.
And we all know Epic Games could whip out a mobile version of this game in like three weeks easy…
Creative Mode
This one’s a must for me: a creative mode in Rocket League where players can build their own custom maps.
Basically, this would allow you to do all the stuff lethamyr (and others) has been doing but without the know-how to code to do it.
Rocket League needs more fun game modes and maps, both for players and content creators. A creative mode would be amazing for the game, then, especially for expanding the player base.
Esports Investment
Once again: more money means more exposure. Bigger prize pools means more attention from gamers worldwide and more money to host international tournaments. This, in turn, would give the game a greater profile on the world stage.
The potential for Rocket League as an esport is already high. But it just isn’t growing at the rate it could be. If epic games can invest into RLCS and Rocket League esports as a whole, we could finally get orgs like Faze and Liquid and others involved.
This would be so good for the community… Imagine RLCS having 30k people attending and 1 million watching online. Hell yeah!
Free to Play
Last, but certainly not least, Rocket League could potentially adopt a ‘free to play’ model.
With creator codes available, an item shop and weekly updates, it would be easy to see Rocket League move to ‘free to play’.
This just makes sense. If you’ve followed my content, you’ve heard me and others talk about this a lot. This is the thing that made Rocket League blow up in the first place: it was free on PS4 plus.
If we want it to become a top-tier title and esport, this is what has to happen. Under Epic Games, it all becomes possible.
Conclusion
I don’t know about you but I’m excited about this. As scary and potentially confusing as this may be, these are exciting times for Rocket League.
It seems unlikely that Epic Games are going to ruin the game by nerfing stuff. If they nerf the flip reset after I’ve just mastered it, I swear I’ll flip reset them…
But that’s not going to happen. Especially if you speak out and let them know that you and I love this game, more than most people can understand.
‘Soccar’ is more than just a business acquisition. For some of us, it’s the first thing we’ve ever really worked hard at. For many, it was our first video game. We just weren’t good enough at shooter games.
We love this game and this community and, honestly, I can’t wait to see it grow like crazy in the next few years. This could be the boost that Rocket League needs to become a lot more mainstream and continue to become one of the all-time favourites games ever.
To finish off, here is a 1 hour podcast by SubParButInHD that dig into the announcement, as well as much discussion around the future Rocket League with Psyonix now in the hands of Epic Games.
Feel free to give your opinion in the comments below. Is this acquisition exciting for you? What are you concerned about?
