Fans boycott Rocket League to protest item trading ban

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: Epic Games has developed a habit of buying smaller studios and converting their games' business models to resemble its mega-hit Fortnite. Many Rocket League players are dissatisfied with the process as Epic significantly altered the game's economy by removing player-to-player item trading.

Starting December 5 at 4 p.m. PST, Rocket League players can no longer trade items with other players. The policy change has sparked protests from the Rocket League community, as trading has been a core gameplay element for years.

The only trading allowed will be the exchange of Core Items, Tournament Items, and Blueprints for random items of greater rarity. Furthermore, players can no longer lend items, and Epic considers all third-party trading sites illegitimate. However, the game will honor previously completed player-to-player trades.

The change will align Rocket League with Epic's other games, which don't allow trading, transferring, or selling cosmetics. The company says that this will eventually enable players to use owned items across Rocket League and its other titles, likely Fortnite and Fall Guys.

The policy change marks another step in Rocket League's transformation since Epic acquired its developer, Psyonix, in 2019. The following year, Epic made the game free-to-play and its PC version exclusive to the Epic Games Store, delisting it from Steam. Fall Guys underwent the same process after Epic bought Mediatonic Games in 2021.

A Change.org petition demanding that Epic retain player trading is approaching 10,000 signatures. Many users suspect the company is attempting to force more players to purchase items directly, as acquiring certain rare items becomes significantly more difficult without trading. Some predict that users will respond by instead selling entire accounts.

Another potential problem is that some of Rocket League's achievements require trading, making them impossible to unlock after December 5, although Psyonix will likely remove or replace the affected achievements. Protesters have also taken the opportunity to criticize Epic's overall treatment of Rocket League since purchasing Psyonix.

It's unclear how the strong reaction will affect Epic's decision, but it makes for more bad press that Epic doesn't need right now. After arguably investing too much, too quickly, the company laid off almost 900 employees last month and divested Bandcamp, potentially endangering the unique, DRM-free indie music store. Banning Rocket League's item trading to push further monetization could be an effort to tighten the company's finances amid its current situation.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100462-fans-boycott-rocket-league-protest-item-trading-ban.html

 

[Lew Zealand]

Just play the game, it's free.

Don't pay for colored pixels that do zero for gameplay, rendering this policy change irrelevant. Save your money to buy another game which gives you the actual value of a different experience.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Best thing the playerbase can do is refuse to play. If the playerbase drops 90%+ in protest, EPIC will walk back the changes almost immediately.

Also another good reason: NEVER sell out to these companies.

 

[godrilla]

So Unity was a foreshadowing of things to come. Everyone putting all their eggs into one basket called the unreal engine is not good imo.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

So Unity was a foreshadowing of things to come. Everyone putting all their eggs into one basket called the unreal engine is not good imo.

Game engine has nothing to do with this though? This is just EPIC being greedy and trying to force more microtransactions to justify their bloated purchase price of a FTP game.

 

[godrilla]

Game engine has nothing to do with this though? This is just EPIC being greedy and trying to force more microtransactions to justify their bloated purchase price of a FTP game.

True but if everyone is putting all their eggs into Unreal engine 5 ( owned by Epic ), Their will me a monopoly on game engine development. Games can be easily become $120 with wait for it nano and Pica level transactions. Questions?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

True but if everyone is putting all their eggs into Unreal engine 5 ( owned by Epic ), Their will me a monopoly on game engine development. Games can be easily become $120 with wait for it nano and Pica level transactions. Questions?

Yeah, WTF does your comment on game engine monopolization have to do with whats going on in rocket league?

The answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. AMD's domination of big consoles has as much to do with rocket league's actions as Unity's idiocy does.

 

[godrilla]

Yeah, WTF does your comment on game engine monopolization have to do with whats going on in rocket league?

The answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. AMD's domination of big consoles has as much to do with rocket league's actions as Unity's idiocy does.

I'm just saying they are showing their prerequisite what will happen. It has everything to do with the future of gaming. If it quacks like a greedy corporation what is it?

 

[kira setsu]

Just play the game, it's free.

Don't pay for colored pixels that do zero for gameplay, rendering this policy change irrelevant. Save your money to buy another game which gives you the actual value of a different experience.

this is the fact that about f2p games that puts players in check,

they didnt spend anything on it out of the gate, so their leverage isn't great in an argument, if a $50/60/70 game(or any game you buy outright honestly) pulls scummy stuff the players can loudly call it out and high chances the devs listen and change things.

not the same when its free, its why I always steer clear of f2p games, they only get worst over time to make their money back.

 

[CrackJunkie]

Hope one day Epic goes completely bankrupt, wiped off the face of the earth for eternity.

 

[Lew Zealand]

this is the fact that about f2p games that puts players in check,

they didnt spend anything on it out of the gate, so their leverage isn't great in an argument, if a $50/60/70 game(or any game you buy outright honestly) pulls scummy stuff the players can loudly call it out and high chances the devs listen and change things.

not the same when its free, its why I always steer clear of f2p games, they only get worst over time to make their money back.

I don't see how RL or Fortnite or Fall Guys or other f2p games have gotten worse. I play RL all the time, FN on rare occasion and ok FG almost never but the gameplay seems fine and similar to launch.

The question for me is whether the items that fund the "free" game are just cosmetic (which seems to be the case with Epic's stable of games) which is OK, or whether it's pay-to-win quicker (SW Battlefront 2 on release comes to mind but I'm sure there are others) which is abhorrent.

Cosmetics are problematic as it's abundantly clear that many people can't contain themselves, otherwise Epic would be long-bankrupt. It bugs me a little that such a useless and superficial thing can fund an effing industry but if you don't want to buy those things, you can still play the game 100% as it's just the same PVP thing over and over again. Until Epic institutes a pay-to-win strategy, they get a pass from me as anyone can play and winning is up to skill. OK or cheating.

 

[JPN77]

Best thing the playerbase can do is refuse to play. If the playerbase drops 90%+ in protest, EPIC will walk back the changes almost immediately.

Also another good reason: NEVER sell out to these companies.

The game is dropping in player base heavily, It will soon have an Average & Peak player base that it hasn't had since 2015.
RL itself be it Psyonix or Riot have no idea how to attract and keep new players even as a Free Game. Its dropped 10k average players in only 7months.

They are purely using it as a cash grab now for whoever is left to buy in game items thats it. Hopefully print enough money to pay for its purchase + overheads.