Wha — Epic Games is buying Psyonix, developers of Rocket League?? Are the days of car soccer combat numbered on Steam?
As you have probably heard, Epic Games is using its Fortnite money to establish itself as not just a maker of games, but a seller of other people’s games — what Valve did with Steam, they want to make happen with their Epic Games Store. Neither Epic or Psyonix have yet to confirm that this news means Rocket League is getting yanked from Steam, but we’re not sure why Epic would be interested in buying out Psyonix if there wasn’t something in it for them beyond just sharing the profits of Rocket League.
In a public statement, Psyonix assured its fans that “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 the game for as long as you’ll have us. 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. We believe that bringing Rocket League to new audiences with more support is a win for everybody.”
Psyonix goes on to answer other questions like “will the gameplay change” (no) and “will the Esports scene change” (no). The question they don’t answer is “will the game be pulled from Steam.” Some media outlets are reporting that Rocket League will be pulled from Steam and others are reporting that it won’t. We have not seen an official statement from Epic or Psyonix regarding the game’s PC fate.
Don’t be surprised if the yank actually happens — it would make perfect business sense to turn the game into an Epic Games Store exclusive and pull it from Steam. Competition is usually a good thing — Steam has been able to get away with a lot by virtue of being the unchallenged king of digital games — but when stuff like this happens, it gets harder to root for the “challenger.”
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