The developers of the incredibly popular battle royale title Fortnite, Epic Games, has just announced the purchase of the indie developer Psyonix. Psyonix is known for their competitive vehicle soccer title Rocket League. The announcement of the purchase has shocked the industry, leaving many wondering the future of Psyonix and their prized gem, Rocket League; or more importantly – it’s now previous PC sales platform, Steam.
While the deal won’t go into play until most likely by the end of May or beginning of June, there’s some big changes happening in the world of PC gaming. And with this move to purchase Pysonix, it also appears that Epic will be selling Rocket League on the Epic Games Store. However, while this most likely would mean Rocket League will be pulled from Steam as its current sales platform, no official confirmation has been made that Rocket League will become exclusive to Epic’s digital storefront.
“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.” – Epic Games via The Verge
So while Epic exclusivity seems to have benched in the mean time, the purchase does allow a few other incentives for both Psyonix and Epic. Psyonix will now see major support for their ongoing eSports championship series for Rocket League, and Epic Games has the opportunity to tighten their bond with the developers who has been by their side since the early days of Epic’s Unreal Engine tech.
“We’ve been working closely with Epic since the early days of Unreal Tournament, and we’ve survived changing tides as partners, so combining forces makes sense in many ways(…)The potential of what we can learn from each other and accomplish together makes us truly excited for the future.” – Psyonix founder, Dave Hagewood
As of now, Rocket League will still be supported and sold on Steam. However, it’s stated that the game will eventually move onto Epic’s digital store by late 2019 with a blurry future of Rocket League’s presence on Steam. While previous purchasers of Rocket League via Steam will still see updates and support after the move is made official, it’s still unclear whether or not Epic will make Rocket League exclusive to the Epic Store.
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