Rocket League Developer Acquired By Epic Games

Rocket League developer Psyonix has announced that it is "joining the Epic Games family," with an acquisition expected to close in late May or early June. In a FAQ, the studio sought to reassure current Rocket League fans that nothing will change about their day-to-day enjoyment of the popular game.

In the short term, the studio says, nothing about the game will change. It is still moving forward with its update roadmap and plans to continue "for as long as you'll have us." In the long-term, Psyonix says it does plan to bring the game to the Epic Games store, and to use the leverage granted by this acquisition to "grow the game in ways we couldn't do on our own before."

Part of that could mean changes to esports, which Rocket League has become known for. Psyonix says this "increases our potential reach and resources." It also hints that it could start to explain future esports plans next month, at its Rocket League Championship Series set to run June 21-23.

Finally, Psyonix says it's "the same team we've always been," suggesting that layoffs or other staff rearrangement isn't being planned for the immediate future.

In response to the acquisition announcement, and speculation that the game would be pulled from Steam, some users began review-bombing it on Steam. This led to Steam deploying its anti-bombing tool that discounts off-topic reviews from its aggregate score, though the negative reviews are still visible.

Rocket League has been a mainstay since launch, even helping push for cross-platform support. It has sustained its success partially on loot boxes, the practice of which recently came under scrutiny. As a result Psyonix had to pull the transactions from a couple of countries.

Meanwhile, Epic Games has been making aggressive moves recently. On top of the mega-success of Fortnite, it has been challenging Steam with its own Epic Games Store, including offering regularly rotating free games. The rapid success of Steam has reportedly led to a crunch culture, at the studio, however, which Epic has conceded in part.