Rocket League developer Psyonix has always been a major proponent of console cross-play, and now the feature has been implemented in Fortnite, the studio has issued an update on the future of cross-play in its footballing car game.

In a Reddit post, Psyonix CEO Dave Hagewood said Rocket League had been built as "a cross-platform game from the very beginning". Alluding to the Fortnite cross-play news, the CEO expressed delight he could "now acknowledge that all the major consoles are making progress towards a truly all-platform cross-platform play experience".

Despite the overwhelming positivity of the statement, it sounds like full console cross-play may still take some time to arrive in Rocket League. According to Hagewood, "cross-platform play is not something Psyonix and Rocket League can do on its own". The CEO added that implementing cross-play "takes the substantial cooperation and coordination of many partners, most notably the platform holders themselves". For this reason, Hagewood advised players "have some patience" as Psyonix works to fulfill its vision of a "truly unified Rocket League community".

Read more…

Rocket League developer Psyonix has announced that the four-wheeled footie phenomenon will be ushering its ninth competitive season on Monday, September 24th.

The accompanying Season 9 update will be released simultaneously on all platforms and, according to Psyonix's latest blog post, introduces a number of new features. Most notably, Rocket League's ninth season marks the arrival of Extra Modes, formerly known as Ranked Sports. This sees Dropshot, Hoops, Rumble, and Snow Day modes lose their Casual status, and join the game's Rank-based Competitive Playlists.

Additionally, Season 9 adds a new in-game soundtrack - Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 4 - plus Season 8 Rewards, and various quality of life improvements and bug fixes. The recently introduced Rocket Pass 1 continues into the new season, concluding on November 26th.

Read more…

Don't expect to see esports in the Olympic Games any time soon. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach believes the video games being played still promote violence and killing too much to be included.

"We cannot have in the Olympic programme a game which is promoting violence or discrimination," Bach told the Associated Press during the recent Asian Games - an event where esports were, for the first time, a feature, albeit as a demonstration sport only. "So-called killer games. They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted."

It's an arguably hypocritical stance given the long list of combat or weapon sports already in the Olympic Games: boxing, martial arts, fencing, shooting, archery and so on. Bach himself was even once an Olympic gold-medalist fencer.

Read more…

Rocket League's first Fortnite-style Rocket Pass will go live next week, on Wednesday 5th September at 6pm UK time on all of the game's platforms - PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

Rocket Pass 1, as the first pass is called, will last from 5th September until 26th November and include 29 free rewards. You can then pay to unlock the pass' premium tier, which holds 70 snazzy prizes. Simply play matches online to progress up the ranks.

You can take a look at all the premium tier rewards via the Rocket Pass site - the selection includes new cosmetics like car skins, wheels, explosions, and sounds, plus XP boosts and crate keys. Here's a look at them in action:

Read more…

Nearly two years after adding crates and keys to Rocket League, developer Psyonix has published the rarity levels found within them for the first time.

Every crate released so far has followed these same rarity percentages, Psyonix said in a new blog posted last night.

Rare items, somewhat contradictrily, account for 55 per cent of drops. The rarest tiers are exotic (four per cent) and black market (one per cent).

Read more…

Developer Psyonix's supremely popular four-wheeled footie game Rocket League is having another free weekend, and proceedings are now underway.

The event offers free access to all available Rocket League game modes, playlists, features, and arenas, and runs until 6pm BST/10am PDT on Monday, July 9th. It is, however, only open to Steam users and Xbox Live Gold subscribers on Xbox One.

To accompany the free weekend, Psyonix is knocking 50% off the game until July 9th on both platforms. It'll cost 7.49 on Steam, and 8.00 on Xbox One via the Microsoft Store.

Read more…

Developer Psyonix has detailed Rocket League's forthcoming anniversary event - which celebrates three years of the supremely popular four-wheeled multiplayer battler, and comes to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on July 9th.

More specifically, the anniversary event begins at 6pm BST/10am PDT on Monday July 9th, and comes to an end at 1am, July 24th in the UK, and 5pm PDT on July 23rd in the US.

The event will actually be a bit of a combined birthday celebration: marking three years of Rocket League, and ten years of its predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. As such, come July 9th, a new 3v3 'Anniversary' Playlist will be introduced to the Casual Playlists page, featuring Throwback Stadium - an arena directly inspired by Battle-Cars.

Read more…

Car football game Rocket League is getting its own version of Fortnite's Battle Pass, named the Rocket Pass.

It works in much the same way - developer Psyonix will sell a pass for each new in-game season of content released throughout the year. If you pay up you'll get extra cosmetic rewards as you play.

There's a free version of the Rocket Pass as well, which everyone gets. It includes customisation options, banners, titles and decryptors.

Read more…

Rocket League is getting a Jurassic-Park-inspired new car pack on June 18th, developer Psyonix has announced.

The Jurassic World Car Pack, as the new licensed addition is known, contains the distinctive Jeep Wrangler from the movie series, with its own unique wheels and engine audio. When used on the blue team, it'll sport liveries from Jurassic World, while the orange team proudly displays the iconic livery from the original Jurassic Park trilogy. The announcement trailer is kind of fantastic:

There's more though! The Jurassic World Car Pack also includes a Jurassic Park hard hat topper, a marginally terrifying T. rex goal explosion, plus a range of banners and antennas. Banners come emblazoned with Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Mr. DNA theming, while antenna flags sport the logos of Park, World, and InGen, the fictional research company that started it all.

Read more…

Developer Psyonix has revealed that Rocket League's sun-bleached, summer-themed Salty Shores update will launch on all platforms next Tuesday, May 29th.

Salty Shores' most notable addition is the new Salty Shores beachside arena, which sees Rocket League's frenzied multiplayer action play out upon golden sands beneath blazing blues skies. "As our sunniest map to date," says Psyonix, "Salty Shores should keep the good vibes going year-round as a permanent addition to all online playlist". You can get a blast of its summer-fresh, sea-salted air in the trailer below.

Salty Shore's sun-drenched aesthetic is paired with a suitably upbeat selection of new tunes from the Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 3 EP in the new update - which also marks the start of Rocket League's Competitive Season 8, and the distribution of its Season 7 Rewards.

Read more…