Rocket League

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About

Rocket League is a video game developed by Psyonix in which players control small cars and attempt to push a giant ball into their opponent's goal, making it essentially "soccer with rocket powered cars." Originally released on Microsoft Windows and Playstation 4, the popularity of the game soon led it to be released on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and OS X. As of January 9th, 2018, the game has over 40 million players.

History

Rocket League was developed and published by Psyonix and released for Microsoft Windows and Playstation 4 on July 7th, 2015.^[1] The game is a sequel to Psyonix's less successful 2008 game Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. In development, Psyonix focused on having the game run at 60 frames-per-second in single and two-player mode as improving the learning curve from Battle-Cars such that new players could reasonably compete against more skilled players. They also initially worked to make the game free-to-play with microtransactions players could purchase to improve performance, but scrapped the idea in favor of making the game a one-time purchase with the only purchasable downloadable content be cosmetic upgrades, thus allowing only the player's skill level to determine gameplay. It was initially released as a part of the Instant Games Collection on Playstation 4, making it free for Playstation Plus users. In the first week of release, the game was played by over 183,000 unique players, causing Psyonix to refit the game's online servers to handle the influx of new players.

In February of 2016, the game was released on Xbox One. Ports for OSx and Linux were released in September of that year. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in November of 2017. Rocket League allows for cross platform online play between Switch, Windows, and Xbox One players, though Sony has not yet agreed to allow cross platform play with Playstation 4 players.

Within a year of launch, Rocket League held its first championship tournament. The game is popular on Twitch among players and is part of the E-Sports League.

Epic Games Acquisition

On May 1st, 2019, Epic Games announced their acquisition of Rocket League developers Psyonix. The deal will include supporting Rocket League further in eSports competitions and bringing the game to the Epic Games Store, which has raised concerns and criticism due to the company's recent and sometimes aggressive exclusivity deals, along with questions as to whether or not the game would continue to be sold on Steam in the near future.

Reception

Rocket League has been reviewed very positively. On Metacritic, the game's scores across four platforms range between 85-87/100. Critics lauded the game's addicting gameplay and sharp visuals. Rock Paper Shotgun^[2] praised the game two years after its release for continuing to be inviting to new players, whereas most multiplayer online games are overrun by expert players in such a time.

Online Presence

Rocket League has wide online fanbase. In addition to being a commonly viewed game on Twitch, the game has a large subreddit^[3] with over 363,000 subscribers. The game's Twitter account has over 419,000 followers.^[4] On Facebook, the game has over 351,000 likes.^[5]

Chat Disabled For Three Seconds

Chat Disabled For 3 Seconds refers to a catchphrase in Rocket League. When playing the game online, players have chat commands linked to the d-pad on Playstation and other consoles. If a player spams a comment, a notice will come up which reads "Chat Disabled For 3 Seconds." Because of the frequency of this message, it has become a meme in the Rocket League community, as well as spamming comments such as "What a save!" and "Nice hit!"