[UPDATE] Epic Games buys out Rocket League studio, retracts previous statement on Steam availability

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Epic Games has spent the past few months attempting to create a storefront, ensuring exclusives for it, and buying out developers to create games under their label. The latest acquisition Epic has made is the just-announced purchase of Psyonix, the studio behind the massively popular Rocket League. As a result of the buyout, Psyonix will be bringing Rocket League to the Epic Games store in late 2019. Once that has occurred, it will be entirely removed from sale on Steam, though if you already own the game on Valve's platform, nothing will change. According to Psyonix, the core game will not change, and they hope to find a new audience through Epic's launcher. The cost of the sale was not disclosed.

:arrow: Source

UPDATE:

After the initial fallout of review bombing and anger from the game's fanbase on Steam, Psionix has edited in a statement on their news post. They've clarified that Rocket League "is and remains available on Steam", and that those on both platforms will be able to look forward to continued support and updates. However, the wording remains unclear if the game will definitively be pulled from Steam one day in the future, only that, for the time being, it will remain on the storefront.

Editor’s Note: We wanted to clarify something for you after today’s news: Rocket League is and remains available on Steam. Anyone who owns Rocket League through Steam can still play it and can look forward to continued support. Thanks!
 

sarkwalvein

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Yeah sounds like they're still saying the same thing, just trying to walk on eggshells with their wording this time. "Is and remains available" to purchase on Steam until when, exactly?
Totally vague: "is and remains", "present tense and present tense"... if "will" is a word you can't write, it is for a reason.
 

Armadillo

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Wouldn't expect anything more from Psyonix. Psyonix have always been very selective with what they respond to for years. Are active on reddit when it suits ,will constantly show up for anything that gets a quick bit of good pr (easy fixes, comments on peoples art/jokes whatever), anything that is negatively recieved by the community or criticism about not doing anything to fix X problem in the game and chances are it's just tumbleweeds and all the Psyonix reps go missing.
 

ChaosEternal

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*Shrug* or just not pay for it or crack the DRM if possible. Anything to spite Epic.
Doing your best to help the downtrodden employees by... trying to make their products fail? We both know who is the first on the chopping block when things go south and it's sure not the CEO that you despise.
 

Xzi

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Doing your best to help the downtrodden employees by... trying to make their products fail? We both know who is the first on the chopping block when things go south and it's sure not the CEO that you despise.
True, but if the CEO drives the company into bankruptcy through a series of bad decisions, you can't blame the customers for the resulting fallout on the devs who chose to sell out to that CEO.

What I'm basically saying is, you can't make customers feel like they owe you something. If a pirated copy gives the same amount of feature support as an EGS copy, a lot of people will go in the direction of the former instead. Epic knows that they're having this impact by buying up third-party exclusives, they just don't care.
 
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the_randomizer

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Doing your best to help the downtrodden employees by... trying to make their products fail? We both know who is the first on the chopping block when things go south and it's sure not the CEO that you despise.

Oh then what would you suggest? The CEO to not being a douche? Is it better to work at a shitty job than being unemployed?
 

RedBlueGreen

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OP has been edited to reflect the latest update from Psionix.

tldr, they've walked back the comment on removing it from Steam, saying "Rocket League is and remains available on Steam."

Still very vague wording, however.
They're probably locked into an agreement right now. If they try to pull out early Valve would probably sue Epic over it.
 

Viri

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Uhu, sure, Epic just bought them, and will totally let the game stay on Steam, I'm sure! :P

They'll take it down when the heat dies out, and when nobody is expecting it! I already own the game on Steam, I don't even remember how I got it, and never played it, lol.
 

ChaosEternal

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Oh then what would you suggest? The CEO to not being a douche? Is it better to work at a shitty job than being unemployed?
The answer to that question depends on the person. Tons of people work awful jobs because they pay the bills. I suppose that an abusive boss can't abuse their employees if they don't have any, but that seems like a rather Pyrrhic solution. Feel free to pirate their games, but claiming to do so in the name of the people who have the most to lose from it seems more like an excuse than a heartfelt action.

True, but if the CEO drives the company into bankruptcy through a series of bad decisions, you can't blame the customers for the resulting fallout on the devs who chose to sell out to that CEO.

What I'm basically saying is, you can't make customers feel like they owe you something. If a pirated copy gives the same amount of feature support as an EGS copy, a lot of people will go in the direction of the former instead. Epic knows that they're having this impact by buying up third-party exclusives, they just don't care.
I don't disagree with you. My argument wasn't that the customers have a responsibility to support Epic. My argument was that trying to cause Epic to collapse in the names of its own employees is rather counterproductive at best.
 
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Hells Malice

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A short sighted move but not a big deal. Most people who want to own Rocket League probably already do. It's not a new game, and it's been on many sales. This will put it in front of some new eyes, but inevitably that initial burst of sales will turn to a trickle compared to what they were seeing on Steam over a period of time.

On Epic's side, it's just bad PR at this point. Their tactics are turning more and more into guerilla warfare. But when you consider their audience is primarily fortnite "gamers", I doubt any of them really care or notice. They're burning bridges when they should be creating them. Eventually they'll be isolated and alone with their playerbase, which will eventually diminish and die off.
I always said Epic needs to do a hell of a lot to compete with Steam. At this point they're just firing off money catapults and getting a few lucky hits. They're not establishing themselves, innovating, or improving anything. That's why they'll inevitably fail and Steam will continue to reign.

Epic is just spending money, they're not investing it in a future.
 

the_randomizer

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The answer to that question depends on the person. Tons of people work awful jobs because they pay the bills. I suppose that an abusive boss can't abuse their employees if they don't have any, but that seems like a rather Pyrrhic solution. Feel free to pirate their games, but claiming to do so in the name of the people who have the most to lose from it seems more like an excuse than a heartfelt action.

I never said it was heartfelt, I only said it as a means to spite Epic games. Their CEO is a real douchebag, there's no defending their decisions.
 
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Deleted_413010

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Its about damn time...who knew Epic would give in.

Epic is just spending money, they're not investing it in a future.

Most certainly they aren't.

I never said it was heartfelt, I only said it as a means to spite Epic games. Their CEO is a real douchebag, there's no defending their decisions.

What if GBAtemp was bought out or was ran by Epic Games...or atleast by Tim Sweeny
 

diggeloid

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I wonder if this exclusivity thing is a Sweeney idea, or a Tencent idea. I know Sweeney is a smart guy, but these decisions are just so damn stupid and out of touch. It’s like they forgot how Steam managed to get so popular in the first place.

When the exclusivity money runs dry, the Epic game store is completely and totally fucked.
 

RagDollRat

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Anybody else want to defend their shit? This is terrible.
sure i can do that, exclusivity and the yanking of games off steam will force steam to actualy fix their launcher, actualy update it, actualy deal with the shovelware and general quality of their launcher as a means of being competitive
 

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