Epic Games don't seem to be just doing exclusives now, they're also pulling in studios with Psyonix (Rocket League) announcing today they're joining Epic Games. Yes, really.
It hasn't been completely confirmed just yet though, as they're waiting on "customary closing conditions", the usual legal stuff all things like this need to go through basically.
In the announcement post on their official site they said "Today is a big day for us here at Psyonix because, just as the headline says, we’re officially joining the Epic Games family.". Going into further detail, they said in the short term nothing will change but they do expect to release on the Epic Store and this will allow them to "leverage our new relationship to grow the game in ways we couldn’t do on our own before".
As a massive fan of Rocket League, being my current favourite and most played game in the last year this news has come as a little bit of a shock. For a number of reasons, for one Epic Games don't really care much about Linux and the Epic Store has no current plans to come to Linux. Not just that, we should take into account the reports about how awful it actually sounds to work for Epic Games with one person saying "It’s killing people" which really does make you think. It also puts Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney's comments across Twitter and various interviews, about how they're trying to change the PC gaming industry and make it better, into a rather different light.
The good news is that since Rocket League is well established on Steam, there should be no chance of it suddenly vanishing as that would be truly ridiculous. It means they also have access to a lot more resources, so hopefully Rocket League will continue to do well.
Update: Well, this could be a problem. According to The Verge, it will be removed from Steam. The press release they received 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; thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers,"—it's not entirely clear if that actually means it will be removed, so I've reached out for full confirmation but the wording really doesn't sound good.
Update #2: When asked on Twitter, the official Rocket League account told us "Hey there! More information will be shared in the future. Please check out our post about this on the Rocket League website: link" which of course wasn't helpful at all. Epic Games did not reply to my email as of yet, but they did send statements to other publications like USgamer where they said "We are continuing to sell Rocket League on Steam, and have not announced plans to stop selling the game there." and also "Rocket League remains available for new purchasers on Steam, and long-term plans will be announced in the future.".
So they aren't announcing plans to remove it from Steam, despite what early reports said but they're also being clear that they do have a long-term plan of which they're not talking about. That's one way to both clarify it and keep it ambiguous in case they do remove it from Steam. However, by long-term plans they might mean some sort of free to play release, supported by an expanded Rocket Pass, it could mean anything.
Update #3: Psyonix also added this additional note to their own announcement which reads "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!".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
sprite_1ww May 1, 2019
I'm already worried that them joining the Epic Store will mean them migrating Rocket League to UE4 , and let's face it UE4 on Linux has real bad performance it chugs like a motherfucker ...
Because while they can remove it from the store, the still have to maintain the game for current owners. So it just means more work.
qptain Nemo May 1, 2019
Could you reach out to Epic and Psyonix for a confirmation of continued Linux support?Way ahead of you.
Last edited by pb on 1 May 2019 at 8:19 pm UTC
Also, there's a chance they could port it to UE4 and apparently that's not a good thing, because it runs poorly on Linux.
Last edited by manokara on 1 May 2019 at 8:23 pm UTC
sprite_1ww May 1, 2019
Could you reach out to Epic and Psyonix for a confirmation of continued Linux support?
I highly doubt they'd pull support for Linux. That would cause an absolute shitstorm. If anything, future Psyonix projects would be the ones affected. If for example they decided to make a Rocket League 2 for whatever reason.
I mean come on we almost all bought it and I know more than a few Linux gamers who did purchase some skins in the store ...
UE4 and apparently that's not a good thing, because it runs poorly on Linux.
That's because they are dragging their feet with parallelized Vulkan support. You can monitor this: https://trello.com/c/lzLwtb5P/124-vulkan-for-pc-and-linux
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 May 2019 at 8:27 pm UTC
qptain Nemo May 1, 2019
It would but it wouldn't be the first or the biggest. And do you know where Epic draw the line? I don't.Could you reach out to Epic and Psyonix for a confirmation of continued Linux support?
I highly doubt they'd pull support for Linux. That would cause an absolute shitstorm. If anything, future Psyonix projects would be the ones affected. If for example they decided to make a Rocket League 2 for whatever reason.
Mohandevir May 1, 2019
"If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached", Sweeney wrote, “Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam."
Now that's pure B.S.! All they did was trying to put the pressure on Steam. Thing is Steam is developping so much more stuff than Epic, that the 88% mark Sweeney requires is probably unsustainable whithout cutting into gamers services and feature development.
How I hate Epic! What they are doing is nothing good for the gamers. It's all for and only for the developpers. Sorry! Won't get my money. Not now, and ever.
It's almost like Epic are trying to undo everything Valve has done for us. Hope they run out of money before any significant damage is done.Putting my tinfoil hat on, I can't help wondering how much encouragement Epic are receiving from Microsoft. Oh, I know it's a bit paranoid, but I've watched over 30 years of Redmond skullduggery. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.
When I went to sleep Sunday evening I was so, SO glad for Psyonix. And now, three days later... This?!
Fuck.
qptain Nemo May 1, 2019
"If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached", Sweeney wrote, “Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam."So even though their store is offering this super enticing 88% cut they feel they have to use exclusivity deals to compete? Why is that I wonder? And are they saying their business model isn't good enough unless Valve specifically is earning less money for some reason? I feel like there are no good answers.
Now that's pure B.S.!
(edit: I mean okay, there are some answers like needing to entice actual customers and whatnot but my point is that a given business approach has to ultimately stand on its own legs without too many bullshit crutches, especially ones that thoroughly annoy the said customer base and disrupt everything)
Last edited by qptain Nemo on 1 May 2019 at 9:19 pm UTC
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