Rocket League Steam future unclear after Epic acquisition

Epic Games has announced that it’s to acquire Psyonix, the studio behind popular vehicular sports game Rocket League.

The company expects to complete the acquisition of the San Diego-based studio, which employs 132 people, in late May or early June 2019.

Established in 2001, Psyonix has previously contributed to titles in Epic’s Gears of War and Unreal Tournament franchises, among other Unreal Engine games, but it’s best known for the incredibly popular sports-action title Rocket League.

According to today’s announcement, Rocket League has amassed a community of more than 57 million players since its release in 2015.

Following the acquisition, Epic said the PC version of Rocket League will come to the Epic Games store in late 2019.

“In the meantime, it will continue to be available for purchase on Steam,” the studio said. “Thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers.”

Currently it’s unclear if Rocket League will continue to be available to buy on Steam after its release on the Epic Games store.

Epic has recently adopted a strategy of aggressively signing exclusive game releases for its platform, such as Metro Exodus and The Division 2, which has seen the titles removed from Valve‘s rival store.

Approached for further comment, Epic wouldn’t tell VGC if Rocket League is set to become the latest in a growing list of high-profile exclusive titles on the Epic Games store.

However, a spokesperson for the company reiterated that the Steam version of Rocket League will continue to be supported once the title is available on the Epic Games store.

“Psyonix has always been a part of the Epic family, and we’re happy to make it official,” said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. “We have great respect for how Psyonix has built an excellent team and an incredible community around Rocket League.”

Psyonix founder and studio director Dave Hagewood said: “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,” he added.