Epic Games has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Rocket League developer studio Psyonix and all of its employees within the company. Rocket League is a famous car-based soccer game that was released back in 2015.
As a part of the deal, the PC version of Rocket League will be coming to Epic Game Store “in late 2019,” 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; thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers.
Once the game makes the switch, it will no longer be available on Valve’s Steam store. However, Epic has confirmed that they have not made any such decision yet. If it does, buyers of the Steam version can continue to play their existing copy of the game indefinitely and continue to receive support, which includes DLC, patches and other future content.
Big news! We are extremely excited to announce that we are joining the @EpicGames family! Read more in our blog here: https://t.co/mlbsrKJ0b2 pic.twitter.com/fZYMpsBtt6
— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) May 1, 2019
In the long-term, we expect to bring Rocket League to the Epic Games store and to leverage our new relationship to grow the game in ways we couldn’t do on our own before. We believe that bringing Rocket League to new audiences with more support is a win for everybody.
On the other hand, Psyonix has also responded to the statement and say that the acquisition will significantly increase their potential reach and resources, in terms of the game as an esport. 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.
It is quite clear that Epic is continuing its spending to undermine Valve’s dominance in PC game distribution. It is yet to see how beneficial this news is for Psyonix and Epic alike.
What do you think of Epic Games buying out Psyonix? Post your comments below.
