154-533: The Rocket League Championship Series ( RLCS ) is an annual Rocket League esports tournament series produced by Blast ApS and endorsed by Psyonix , the game's developer. It consists of two online qualification splits in several regions, with teams earning points towards qualifying for midseason tournaments known as Majors and the Rocket League World Championship, both of which are held as LAN events worldwide. Psyonix had observed
308-498: A Battle-Cars sequel in the years prior, including an unsuccessful attempt at pitching the game's idea to Electronic Arts in 2011. Psyonix used some of the feedback from Battle-Cars to fine-tune the gameplay in Rocket League . A key requirement for Psyonix was to increase the game's frame rate from 30 to 60 frames-per-second, a known criticism from Battle-Cars and essential for newer hardware, according to Corey Davis,
462-557: A loot box system known as Crates, where players could purchase them with a random selection of in-game customization items, opened through the purchase of Keys using real-world funds. Due to increasing governmental concern over loot boxes, Psyonix replaced the Crates system with Blueprints in December 2019, which offer a known specific item with potential modifiers as potential end-of-match drops. These Blueprints can then be crafted using
616-423: A radio-controlled car (RC car) game set based on the game that features two RC cars that are controlled through Bluetooth devices, a play field, a ball containing infrared sensors for scoring purposes, and charging devices. Psyonix transitioned Rocket League to a free-to-play model on all platforms on September 23, 2020. Associated with the transition, the game added cross-platform progression that covers
770-461: A $ 1,000,000 prize pool. For Season 7, Psyonix introduced South America as a new region. Season 8 took place in December 2019. The Season 9 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with winners of the regional championships being considered the champions. In July 2020, Psyonix announced a new format for the tenth season of RLCS, known as RLCS X. This format did away with league play and
924-563: A $ 1.5 billion investment from The Walt Disney Company . Pending regulatory approval, Disney will acquire a 9% stake. Disney plans to co-develop new games and an "entertainment universe" encompassing its properties with Epic. Part of this involved bringing more of the Disney properties to Fortnite ; while Fortnite had already featured numerous cosmetics based on Marvel Comics and Star Wars , Disney announced new plans to bring its classic animated characters and those from Pixar properties to
1078-468: A World Championship to finish the season. The season was won by Evan Rogez, Enzo Grondein, and Alexandre Paoli of Team BDS. For the 2022–23 season Asia Pacific North and Asia Pacific South were combined into a single region with point totals being lowered and each regional event being called the Open, Cup and invitational. This season was won by Zen, Alpha54, and Radosin of Team Vitality , beating Team BDS in
1232-429: A better rarity grade. Also included in the patch are a number of painted and certified items, the latter of which are cosmetic items with statistics-recording tags, and eight new achievements. Psyonix added the ability for players to trade items with other players within the "Rumble" update, including item and crate drop systems comparable to Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , in which players have
1386-450: A chance to collect six Halloween -themed items from October 18 to November 2. The game's third DLC pack, titled Chaos Run , was released in December 2015. The DLC added two more cars, along with more cosmetics. A new arena, called "Wasteland", was released for free alongside the DLC. The map is notable for being the first non-standard arena to be released, having a different size and shape than
1540-414: A curving ball that magnetizes toward both ends of the field, drawing comparisons to the 1972 table tennis sports game Pong . The original soundtrack for Rocket League was released both physically and digitally on July 1, 2015. It contains original compositions by Psyonix sound designer Mike Ault , as well as contributions by Ault's electronic music group, Hollywood Principle. New songs were added to
1694-918: A digital replica of their likeness. Epic launched Fab, a unified marketplace for Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, AetStation Marketplace, and Quixel assets, on October 22, 2024. In 2008, Epic acquired Utah based Chair Entertainment , developer of Undertow . Summer 2009 saw the launch of Chair's Shadow Complex , an adventure game inspired by the Metroid series. Epic announced in October 2018 that it had acquired $ 1.25 billion in investment from seven firms: KKR , ICONIQ Capital , Smash Ventures, aXiomatic , Vulcan Capital , Kleiner Perkins , and Lightspeed Venture Partners . The firms join Tencent, Disney, and Endeavor as minority shareholders in Epic. With
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#17327872978161848-714: A dispute between Improbable and Unity Technologies over changes to the acceptable uses of the Unity game engine, Epic announced it was partnering with Improbable to launch a $ 25 million fund to help bring developers they believe affected by these changes towards solutions that are more open and would have fewer service compatibilities. Epic launched a $ 100 million prize pool in February 2019 for Fortnite -related esports activities that it plans to run from 2019 onward. To expand its esports initiatives, Epic Games hired Nate Nanzer from Blizzard Entertainment and their commissioner of
2002-416: A fourth main title for Gears of War , but estimated that its budget would be at least $ 100 million . Additionally, they had suggested the idea of a multiplayer-only version of Gears of War that featured improved versions of maps based on user feedback, similar to the concept behind Unreal Tournament , but Microsoft rejected this idea. Epic recognized the troubles of being held to the business objectives of
2156-500: A free add-on into the Unreal Engine. In April 2021, Epic completed another $ 1 billion round of funding to support the company's "long-term vision for the metaverse ", putting the company's valuation at $ 28.7 billion . The round of funding included another $ 200 million strategic investment from Sony. Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder with these additional investments. The Information reported that Epic Games
2310-435: A free update added the ability to Mutate a match, allowing for a number of different custom presets and match settings, including a low gravity mode and a cubed ball, among other improvements and additions. Through this, Psyonix is able to offer custom game playlists to test out new modes or for holiday-themed events. For example, during the latter part of December 2015, Psyonix introduced an ice hockey -based mutation alongside
2464-425: A free-to-play model, Psyonix decided instead to switch to a traditional sale method, and offer only cosmetic elements as downloadable content , assuring that no players would have any additional advantage beyond their own skill. The name Rocket League was selected in part to reduce the size of the game's title in order to appear fully in digital storefronts, and also served to be an easier to remember name as well as
2618-691: A full free-to-play release expected in 2018. Following on the popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , a battle royale game released earlier in 2017, Epic developed a variant of Fortnite called Fortnite Battle Royale , which was released in September 2017 as a free-to-play title across computer, console, and mobile platforms. Fortnite Battle Royale quickly gained an audience, amassing over 125 million players by May 2018 with estimates of having earned over $ 1 billion by July 2018 through microtransactions, including its battle pass system. Epic Games, which had been valued at around $ 825 million at
2772-637: A long-standing relationship with the studio (its original North Carolina headquarters were only 12 miles (19 km) away from those of Epic), having worked with it on development tools for the Unreal Engine. As a result of the purchase, the game was planned to be added to the Epic Games Store by late-2019, but Psyonix was unclear over whether the game would become exclusive to the store. The game became subject to review bombing on Steam due to this sale, triggering Steam's "off-topic review activity" system, which hides reviews that do not correlate with
2926-589: A map before adding it to the game's standard map playlist. In April 2016, the developers added the basketball -based playlist to the standard playlists. A new Rumble mode, which adds unique power-ups on various maps, was released in September 2016. The game's first DLC pack, titled Supersonic Fury , was released in August 2015, along with new arena Utopia Coliseum. It contains exclusive cosmetics, including two new cars, rocket boosts, wheels, five paint finishes, and twelve decals for both new cars. The same month, it
3080-467: A more mature-sounding title than Battle-Cars , according to Hagewood; speaking on Rocket League 's development in March 2016, Davis opined that Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars was "the worst game name of all time". In April 2021, company announced that they would release Rocket League Sideswipe for iOS and Android. On December 2, 2023, Psyonix teased Rocket Racing during
3234-595: A move which Sweeney called the start of the third major iteration of the company, "Epic 3.0". In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War , which became a commercial success for the company, grossing about $ 100 million off a $ 12 million budget. A year later, the company released Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and acquired a majority share in People Can Fly . In 2008, Epic Games released Gears of War 2 , selling over three million copies within
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#17327872978163388-519: A name which incorporated "Epic" and "Mega" to make it sound like it represented a fairly large company (such as Apogee Software), although he was its only employee. Sweeney soon underwent searching for a business partner, and eventually caught up with Mark Rein , who previously quit his job at id Software and moved to Toronto , Ontario . Rein worked remotely from Toronto, and primarily handled sales, marketing and publishing deals; business development that Sweeney found to have significantly contributed to
3542-483: A new location in Cary, North Carolina , and would henceforth be known as simply Epic Games. Rein explained that " Unreal was first created by developers who were scattered across the world, eventually, the team came together to finish the game and that's when the real magic started. The move to North Carolina centralizes Epic, bringing all of the company's talented developers under one roof." Furthermore, Sweeney stated that
3696-461: A player's rank, respectively. The game includes a single-player Season mode, with the player competing with computer-controlled players. An update in December 2016 introduced Custom Training sequences that can be created by players and shared with others on the same platform. Players are able to specify the ball's path and the presence and skill of opponents on the field, which enables them to practice specific shots or maneuvers. A few months after it
3850-630: A point of significant criticism. Sony allowed Fortnite to be cross-platform play compatible with all platforms and stated they would review other games on a case-by-case basis. By January 2019, Psyonix announced that Sony had granted the same for Rocket League , allowing cross-platform play between the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC versions in February 2019. Psyonix planned to continue to support Rocket League with downloadable content (DLC), intending to keep all gameplay updates free and only charging for cosmetic items. In November 2015,
4004-609: A publisher and began to shift the company again. Coupled with their desire to move away from being beholden to a publisher, Epic Games observed that the video game industry was shifting to a games-as-a-service model (GaaS). Sweeney stated, "There was an increasing realization that the old model wasn't working anymore and that the new model was looking increasingly like the way to go." In an attempt to gain more GaaS experience, they made an agreement with Chinese Tencent , who had several games under their banner (including Riot Games ' League of Legends ) operating successfully as games as
4158-479: A publisher by selling their game as "soccer, but with rocket-powered cars"; none of the publishers seemed interested. Ultimately, they opted to self-publish the game on the PlayStation Network with almost no marketing. Though it was downloaded more than two million times, it was not considered very successful even after the studio cut the price. The studio continued on to other projects, though kept
4312-542: A remastered version of Shadow Complex for newer consoles and computers in 2015, and their first foray into virtual reality with the release of Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift . The investment infusion from Tencent allowed Epic Games to relicense the Unreal Engine 4 engine in March 2015 to be free for all users to develop with, with Epic taking 5% royalties on games developed with the engine. In June 2015, Epic agreed to allow Epic Games Poland's departure from
4466-484: A service following these departures. Fortnite was to serve as their testbed for living games, but with the shifts in staff, and its engine from Unreal Engine 3 to 4, its release suffered some setbacks. Epic started additional projects; the free-to-play and community-developed Unreal Tournament , first announced in 2014, and the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Paragon , launched in 2016 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 . Epic also released
4620-539: A service. In exchange for Tencent's help, Tencent acquired approximately 48.4% of Epic then issued share capital, equating to 40% of total Epic – inclusive of both stock and employee stock options, for $ 330 million in June 2012. Tencent Holdings has the right to nominate directors to the board of Epic Games and thus counts as an associate of the Group. However, Sweeney stated that Tencent otherwise has very little control on
4774-453: A similar view, writing that the physics "causes frustration in 4v4 bouts where everyone ends up huddling under the slow-descending ball for long periods." "... the physics, floaty as they are, not really suited to seeing the ball constantly being punted about: it can often feel like chasing a balloon around a children's party, but the children are in high-powered rocket cars and are taking no shit. ... you feel Psyonix would be better off making
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4928-476: A single opponent to have difficulty controlling their car, was added on September 8, 2016. An update in December 2016, known as Starbase ARC and based on Psyonix' mobile game ARC Squadron , added support for custom arenas for Windows players supported through Steam Workshop , along with other new content. In celebration of Super Bowl LV in February 2021, Psyonix released a limited time gamemode called Gridiron, which functions similar to gridiron football with
5082-399: A special event featuring holiday-themed decorative items, replacing the normal ball with a hockey puck , and changing the floor to ice. This mode proved very popular and was permanently added to the standard playlists on February 24, 2016. In February 2016, a new game playlist called Rocket Labs was added to offer new experimental maps to players as a means to gauge feedback and interest in
5236-547: A stable player base and avoid the snowball effect that can cause isolated player bases on individual platforms to wane, particularly in the transition from one console generation to the next. Though the Xbox One version lacked this feature at launch, Microsoft in March 2016 announced that Rocket League would be the first game in a new initiative they were taking to enable cross-play between Windows and Xbox One players who have Xbox Live accounts; this cross-platform play feature
5390-436: A studio that provides highly detailed digital facial animations for both films and video games, in March 2020. Epic acquired SuperAwesome, a firm that has developed services to support children-safe games and services around games, in September 2020, as to incorporate these elements more into Epic's portfolio and to offer to other developers, particularly for games built around Epic's vision of metaverse games. Epic acquired
5544-418: A unified and more frequent manner to enable them to continue to expand the game for at least another 9 months. In a July 2016 interview with IGN , Dunham stated they had done all the technical work and could enable cross-platform play between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions "within a few hours" of Sony's approval. As of March 2017, the company is ready to enable this feature, but was still waiting for
5698-460: A user's country. Across July and August, Epic raised an additional $ 1.78 billion in capital investment, bringing the company's post-money equity valuation to $ 17.3 billion . This included a $ 250 million investment from Sony , approximately a 1.4% stake in the company. The deal continues the two companies' technology collaboration after they had worked together on the development of Unreal Engine 5, but does not commit Epic to any exclusivity to
5852-505: Is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina . The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland . Following its first commercial video game release, ZZT (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein , who has been its vice president since. After moving
6006-502: Is known for its "digital human" creations, using a combination of digital technology, motion capture, and other tools to create photo-realistic human subjects in real-time. Epic plans to add some of 3Lateral's features to the Unreal Engine. Agog had developed SkookumScript, a platform for scripting events in video games; on the announcement of this acquisition, Agog stated they will stop the development of SkookumScript to work more on Unreal Engine scripting support. Epic acquired Psyonix ,
6160-481: Is largely the same as that of its predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars . Players control a rocket-powered car and use it to hit a ball that is much larger than the cars towards the other team's goal area to score goals, in a way that resembles indoor soccer , with elements reminiscent of a demolition derby . Players' cars have the ability to jump to hit the ball while in mid-air. Updates in 2024 introduced new features that allow players to view
6314-495: Is limited by the current cross-platform limitations: while Windows players can add friends from other Windows users and Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch users, PlayStation 4 users are limited to Windows and PlayStation 4 users. In September 2018, Sony had altered its position on cross-platform play following the release of Fortnite Battle Royale for the Nintendo Switch, where the lack of cross-platform play had been
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6468-438: Is published and distributed by 505 Games , and includes the first three downloadable content packs for free, as well as four additional cars to be available as digital download on July 18: Aftershock and Marauder (both from Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars ), as well as Esper and Masamune. In October 2017, Psyonix announced that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment would begin to publish an updated version of
6622-615: The FIFA soccer series, would feature a national team focused Rocket League tournament. This was due to EA Sports , who had developed the FIFA games, ending their decades-long ties with soccer's governing body. Rocket League has received "generally favorable" reviews on all platforms, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Positive feedback was aimed towards the game's multiplayer gameplay, and its graphics and visuals, especially in comparison to Battle-Cars ; later reviews praised
6776-622: The Fortnite Big Bang event as a spin-off title and was released as a game mode in Fortnite on December 8. It supports cross-game inventory for use in the Battle Royale modes with cosmetics related to cars. Rocket League has been one of the leading games in supporting cross-platform play between personal computers and consoles. Jeremy Dunham, Psyonix's vice president of publishing, says cross-platform play helps establish
6930-590: The Hollywood Professional Association . Epic announced in March 2020 it was establishing a new multi-platform publishing label, Epic Games Publishing. Alongside this, the label had announced three deals with developers Remedy Entertainment , Playdead and GenDesign in which Epic would fully fund development and publishing (including employee salaries, quality assurance, localization, and marketing) of one or more games from each studio, but leaving full creative control and IP rights to
7084-646: The National Basketball Association (NBA), offering flags with all 30 NBA team logos as car customization items. In February 2017, two iconic Hot Wheels cars were added to the game, along with other cosmetic items based on the brand. For the 2019 Radical Summer event, Psyonix released two new car packs; the Ecto-1 from the Ghostbusters film franchise in June, and the KITT from
7238-519: The Overwatch League in May 2019. At the 2019 Game Developers Conference , Epic announced it was launching a $ 100 million MegaGrants initiative, allowing anyone to apply for up to $ 500,000 in funding to support game development using the Unreal Engine or for any project, even if not directly games-related, that would benefit the Unreal Engine. One of the first major funded entities under this
7392-465: The PlayStation 3 . That game itself bore out from previous modifications that Psyonix' founder, Dave Hagewood, had done for Unreal Tournament 2003 by expanding out vehicle-based gameplay that Epic Games had already set in place in the engine into a new game mode called Onslaught. For this, Hagewood was hired as a contractor by Epic for Unreal Tournament 2004 specifically for incorporating
7546-456: The Rocket League vehicles, which released in June 2017. Some of these included a redeemable code that can be used within the game for unique customization items. The developers also filmed television advertisements for Rocket League that started airing the same month. Alongside these ads, Psyonix offered free copies of Rocket League alongside purchase of selected Nvidia graphics cards . In December 2018, toy car brand Hot Wheels released
7700-535: The Unreal game engine . Tripwire Interactive won US$ 80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes over the course of the contest in the first contest in 2004. Around 2006, the personal computer video game market was struggling with copyright infringement in the form of software piracy, and it became difficult to make single-player games, elements that had been part of Epic's business model to that point. The company decided to shift focus into developing console systems,
7854-425: The "Big Bang" event on December 2, 2023. Rocket League was officially announced as the sequel to Battle-Cars in February 2014. Building on the effects from the lack of marketing with Battle-Cars , Psyonix developed a different marketing approach to Rocket League . This included engaging with YouTube and Twitch video game streamers with early release copies to help spread the word, recognizing that clips from
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#17327872978168008-511: The "Mega" part of the name was dropped because they no longer wanted to pretend to be a big company, as was the original intention of the name when it was a one-man team. The follow-up game, Unreal Tournament , shipped to critical acclaim the same year, at which point the studio had 13 employees. The company launched the Make Something Unreal competition in 2004, aiming to reward video game developers who create mods using
8162-562: The 1980s television series Knight Rider in July. Psyonix had hoped to include KITT as early as 2016. For the 2019 Halloween event, cars and other cosmetics based on the television series Stranger Things were added. In May 2020, Psyonix introduced the Modes of May event, which included a number of limited-time game modes for every weekend of the month. The modes include Dropshot Rumble, Beach Ball, Boomer Ball, and Heatseeker, which features
8316-608: The 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , was offered as a playable vehicle in March 2016, while Dominic Toretto 's Dodge Charger from the film The Fate of the Furious was added to tie in with the film's release in April 2017. An update released in July 2017 introduced a new arena celebrating the one-year anniversary of the game, along with cosmetic items based on the American animated show Rick and Morty . Alongside
8470-808: The 2025 season in January, with a total prize pool of $ 5,000,000, the addition of a 1v1 tournament, and changes to the 3v3 tournament which include the addition of a last chance open qualifiers tournament between Major 2 and the World Championship, and expanding the World Championship to 20 teams. Rocket League Rocket League is a 2015 vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix for various home consoles and computers. It has been offered as free-to-play since 2020 when Epic Games acquired Psyonix. A sequel to 2008's Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars , Rocket League features up to eight players assigned to each of
8624-469: The Onslaught mode as an official part of the game. Hagewood used his experience at Epic to found Psyonix. Among other contract projects, Psyonix worked to try to find a way to make racing the Unreal vehicles in a physics-based engine enjoyable. They had toyed with several options such as race modes or mazes, but found that when they added a ball to the arena to be pushed by the vehicles, they had hit upon
8778-604: The Open, Cup and Invitational system for each region in favor of three new open qualifying stages, those being a double-elimination qualifying bracket, a Swiss-system tournament featuring the top 16 from open qualifying and a knockout stage featuring the top 8 from the Swiss stage. This open qualifying cycle is repeated three times per split, awarding RLCS points after each stage, before the top teams in RLCS points in each region from those stages advance to that split's Major, which features
8932-526: The PC and Xbox One versions. Due to the Switch's lack of natural support for Unreal Engine 3 , some compromises had to be made in the porting process, such as by reducing the graphical quality to 720p . Despite having to do custom work to make the game run smoothly on the Switch, Dunham was impressed with the work that had been done before release. Austin, Texas -based studio Panic Button assisted Psyonix with
9086-423: The PlayStation 4 and free to PlayStation Plus subscribers; within the week, Psyonix had seen more than 183,000 unique players, exceeding their server capacity and requiring them to improve on their network code to handle the influx of players. Davis estimated there were six million downloads of the game from this promotion, and considered this the "best decision" they had ever made. At The Game Awards 2015 , it
9240-521: The RLRS in favor of teams earning points through three regional splits, all culminating in three seasonal majors. The 2021–22 season began in October 2021, bringing in four new regions (Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific North, Asia Pacific South, and Sub-Saharan Africa), a more reliable circuit similar to Season X, and a $ 6 million prize pool. The new circuit consisted of 3 splits, containing 3 regionals and 1 international LAN major each, culminating in
9394-587: The Sony PlayStation platform. Sweeney said that Sony had started talking with Epic about investing following the demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 in May 2020. Epic purchased Cary Towne Center in Cary, North Carolina, in January 2021, which had been scheduled to be closed and demolished after 2020, to be their new headquarters and campus, with the conversion to be complete by 2024. Epic unveiled its MetaHuman Creator project in February 2021. Based on
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#17327872978169548-577: The Swiss and knockout stages from open qualifying and award additional points. The combined standings decides who advances to the World Championship, which was reduced from 24 to 16 teams in the process using the same format as the Majors. On January 4, 2024, it was announced that Blast ApS, a tournament organizer known for the Blast Premier circuit in Counter-Strike as well as organizing
9702-461: The Twinmotion visualization tool used in architectural design in May 2019 from Abvent, and which they plan to expand and incorporate into their Unreal Engine offerings. Epic acquired Life on Air, the developers behind Houseparty , a social networking service , in June 2019. The monetary terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Epic later shuttered Houseparty's app in October 2021, though
9856-470: The Xbox One and Nintendo Switch ports, and graphical updates to support the PlayStation 4 Pro . In April 2017, Psyonix announced that they had partnered with Tencent to bring a free-to-play version of Rocket League to the Chinese gaming market, with users able to purchase cosmetic items through microtransactions. It was successfully licensed through China's approval process in July 2019. Because of
10010-455: The above two volumes, in late 2016. The game's 2nd anniversary update included a musical content pack featuring releases from the EDM label Monstercat . The label have also released a series of standalone albums featuring the music, titled Rocket League x Monstercat . Rocket League Sideswipe is a free mobile game spin-off by Psyonix released on Android and iOS in late 2021. The game
10164-422: The ball move just a tad faster: often you'll crash into it at speed only to see your car move quicker than it after collision." In a review for PC Gamer , Matt Elliott defended the physics engine, citing the "[nice] contrast" between the fast player-controlled cars and the slower-moving ball, colorfully describing that the ball "gormlessly invites impact like a punchable cousin." Elliott also wrote positively of
10318-494: The championship series took place in December 2016 with a $ 125,000 prize pool, and was won by Mark Exton, Francesco Cinquemani, and Marius Ranheim of FlipSid3 Tactics. A third series began in March 2017, with the $ 300,000 prize pool finals taking place three months later. In this season, two teams from the oceanic region were also invited to compete. A second division, the Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS),
10472-423: The chance to gain locked crates from playing in competitive matches. Players are able to purchase keys to open these crates through microtransactions , revealing special decorative items for their cars. Players can opt-out of this feature to disable crate drops. Though items received in crates are tradable within the game, these items cannot be sold on the platform's respective marketplaces so as to prevent issues in
10626-430: The company and sold its shares in the studio; the studio reverted to their former name, People Can Fly. The Bulletstorm IP was retained by People Can Fly who has since launched a remastered version called Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition on April 7, 2017, published by Gearbox Software . By July 2017, Fortnite was finally in a state for public play. Epic launched the title through a paid early access then, with
10780-623: The company gained additional investments that enabled it to expand its Unreal Engine offerings, establish esports events around Fortnite , and launch the Epic Games Store . As of April 2022, the company has a US$ 32 billion equity valuation. Potomac Computer Systems was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991. At the time, Sweeney was studying mechanical engineering and living in a dorm at the University of Maryland . He frequently visited his parents, who lived in nearby Potomac, Maryland , where his personal computer , used for both work and leisure,
10934-450: The company's growth. Some time this season, the company soon had 20 employees consisting of programmers, artists, designers and composers. Among them was the 17-year old Cliff Bleszinski , who joined the company after submitting his game Dare to Dream to Sweeney. The following year, they had over 30 employees. In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight , developed by Polish studio Chaos Works. It
11088-497: The concept that Rocket League is a team game." In a retrospective review written two years after its release, Alec Meer of Rock Paper Shotgun shared similar feelings about the player experience in Rocket League . Meer stated that the game remained "very open, friendly, and accessible to new players across all ages, in contrast to other games with online longevity that tend to be dominated by expert players and difficult to breach by new ones." Epic Games Epic Games, Inc.
11242-416: The console manufacturers to come to the required agreements to allow it. With the announcement of the Switch version, Psyonix affirmed that it would support cross-platform play with PC and Xbox users. Sony still opted not to participate in this; PlayStation global marketing head Jim Ryan said that while they are "open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it", their decision
11396-553: The continued growth of the game's player base, Psyonix's Dunham said they do not anticipate creating any sequel to the game, and instead are expecting to continue to add new features to the game over several years' time, calling this an "infinite support window". A small team within Psyonix was set up to explore new features and gameplay ideas to continue to expand Rocket League . In May 2019, Epic Games announced that it had acquired Psyonix for an undisclosed amount. Psyonix has had
11550-433: The cosmetic items players have earned, new competitive tournaments at each rank to earn rewards, new challenges, and other features. The free-to-play version eliminated the need for players to have console subscription services like PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online to be able to play. Some changes were also made to the game's tournaments and challenge systems to help with monetization. Players that had purchased
11704-477: The creative output of Epic Games. Sweeney considered the partial acquisition by Tencent as the start of "Epic 4.0", the fourth major iteration of the company, allowing the company to be more agile in the video game marketplace. Around this point, Epic had about 200 employees. A number of high-profile staff left the company months after the Tencent deal was announced for various reasons. Some notable departures included: Epic continued its goal to deliver games as
11858-556: The design director at Psyonix. Hagewood recognized that Battle-Cars was considered "too hardcore" with the game becoming too inaccessible to novice players against skilled ones. They eased up on some aspects to make it more approachable, such as by slowing the pace of the game and allowing players of all skill levels to reasonably compete against each other while promoting team-based gameplay. Though they tried to add elements like power-ups , they found these to be too distracting to gameplay. They also explored other changes such as making
12012-405: The developer of Rocket League , in May 2019. Epic and Psyonix have had a past history, as Psyonix was originally founded a few miles from Epic's headquarters and had contributed to Epic's Unreal Tournament . Besides ongoing support for Rocket League , Psyonix developed an arcade-style car racing game inside of Fortnite , named Rocket Racing , which was added in December 2023. Epic acquired
12166-490: The esports circuit for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege , would take over from Psyonix as organizer for the RLCS in 2024, having previously run the Fortnite Champion Series (Previously run by Psyonix's parent company Epic Games ) since 2022. The first major of the RLCS 2024 season was won by Seikoo, Itachi, and Juicy of Gentlemates Alpine. The second was won by Atomic, Beastmode, and Daniel of G2 Stride,
12320-604: The first $ 1 million in revenue, regardless of how they were published, retroactively starting from January 1, 2020. Bloomberg reported that Epic was nearing a $ 17 billion valuation in June 2020 once it had completed a new $ 750 million investing round from its previous investors and newcomings T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Baillie Gifford. The company partnered with Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. to acquire distribution rights for Inception , Batman Begins and The Prestige as part of "Movie Nite" on Fortnite's "Party Royale" island. The film live streams were based on
12474-431: The first All-American team to win an RLCS LAN. season was won by M0nkey M00n, ExoTiiK, and dralii of Team BDS, beating G2 Stride in the grand finals 4-2 - a recreation of the RLCS 2021-22 grand finals, which took place in the same venue. G2 Stride was also the first RLCS team to have reached every LAN event final in an RLCS season. Towards the end of the RLCS 2024 World Championship, it was announced that RLCS would return for
12628-523: The first Rocket League Championship Series; the finals took place in August 2016 with a $ 55,000 prize pool. More than $ 1 million in revenues from the sale of in-game crates and cosmetic items were used to fund additional competitive events throughout the year, including smaller competitions at major gaming conventions and support for community-run competitive events. Soon after release, Rocket League became an officially sponsored esport, joining ESL . In September 2015, Major League Gaming (MLG) announced
12782-561: The first month of its release. Epic Games released on September 1, 2010 Epic Citadel as a tech demo to demonstrate the Unreal Engine 3 running on Apple iOS , within Adobe Flash Player Stage3D and using HTML5 WebGL technologies. It was also released for Android on January 29, 2013. Epic Games worked on an iOS game, Infinity Blade , which was released on December 9, 2010. The third game in
12936-646: The first season of the Pro Rocket League , which was held in September through early October. A $ 75,000 Rocket League tournament was held outside U.S. Bank Stadium at the Summer X Games in July 2017, with the finals streamed live on ESPN3 . NRG Esports claimed their first live Rocket League championship by winning the tournament, defeating Gale Force eSports in the final. As NBC's first foray into esports, NBC Sports Group , in conjunction with Faceit , ran its own $ 100,000-prize pool tournament which
13090-506: The former Potomac Computer Systems address at the time, fulfilling all orders that eventually came by mail. The final copy of ZZT was shipped by Paul Sweeney in November 2013. In early 1992, Sweeney found himself and his new-found video game company in a business where larger studios, such as Apogee Software and id Software , were dominant, and he had to find a more serious name for his. As such, Sweeney came up with "Epic MegaGames",
13244-414: The free-to-play elements. The game was released publicly on July 7, 2015, for the PlayStation 4 and Windows. Davis considered this serendipitous, as this moved the game out from a busy period of many major releases during the holiday season to the relatively quiet mid-year period, reducing the amount of competition from other titles. Further, the game on release was made part of Instant Game Collection on
13398-429: The game developers Psyonix , Mediatonic , and Harmonix , and operates studios in multiple locations around the world. While Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder, Tencent acquired a 48.4% outstanding stake, equating to 40% of total Epic, in the company in 2012, as part of an agreement aimed at moving Epic towards a games as a service model. Following the release of the popular Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017,
13552-489: The game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles by the end of that year, which includes additional content for both versions. The PlayStation 4 version was patched in February 2017 to offer PlayStation 4 Pro support, allowing for 4K resolution and constant 60 frames-per-second rendering at 1080p for one and two-player split-screen players; three and four-player split screen will render up to 60 frames-per-second when possible. Similar rendering improvements were also made to
13706-416: The game for both recreation and for teaching elements of game design. In 2017, the game served as a sponsor of WWE pay-per-view events , such as Backlash , Great Balls of Fire , and SummerSlam . The following year, the companies announced a further partnership, with WWE cosmetic items introduced to the game in April. Psyonix partnered with Zag Toys to produce a series of pullback toy cars based on
13860-456: The game itself. Psyonix announced in January 2020 that as part of a major upgrade to the base game systems, they would be dropping support for macOS and Linux from the game by March 2020. After March 2020, these versions will no longer be able to connect and use the online parts of the game, but can still be played in single player or local multiplayer. Psyonix said in a followup message that macOS and Linux players represented less than 0.3% of
14014-425: The game more gritty, akin to Monday Night Combat , developing several mini-games related to handling of the car, working on making the graphics give a sense of scale to the players to give the impression they were controlling full-sized vehicles rather than radio-controlled cars , and creating an open world structure where the player would drive between stadium and stadium to participate in matches. Instead,
14168-591: The game prior to the transition were given "Legacy" status and some related cosmetic items. As part of this transition, the Windows version of the game was moved off Steam onto the Epic Games Store . Players that had already owned the Steam version prior to the change were still able to download, update the game and play it with cross-play with other platforms, and would continue to receive updates. In December 2023, Psyonix removed player-to-player trading. This change
14322-466: The game was "fun option for anyone looking to mix their racing and sports games together", himself describing that the game was "addictive and fun as hell." Reviewers from Polygon , PlayStation Universe , and Videogamer.com shared positive views towards multiplayer gameplay in Rocket League . Ben Kuchera of Polygon wrote that the game "introduces a well-known concept and then adds a complication." Kuchera disagreed with Pinkerton and asserted that
14476-456: The game with post-release updates, including "Chaos Run Theme" by Kevin Riepl , "Escape from LA (Instrumental)" by Abandoned Carnival and Ault, and a remix of Hollywood Principle's "Breathing Underwater" by Ether. These songs were later compiled in the second volume of the soundtrack, which was released on July 7, 2016. iam8bit published a three-disc vinyl version of the soundtrack, consisting of
14630-443: The game would be readily shared through social media. They also opened the game to early alpha and beta testing for several months following the game's announcement. Davis noted that they otherwise did not spend any money on traditional marketing approaches. They had originally planned to release the game around November 2014, but had missed this deadline to implement better matchmaking and servers, high frame rates, and removing
14784-429: The game's new premium currency (Credits), or purchased with real-world funds, if the player so chooses. A new rotating Item Shop was introduced in December 2019 as well, with Featured items available on a 48-hour timer and Daily items on a 24-hour timer. The Item Shop includes all types of in-game items, such as Painted Cars, Exotic Wheels, Goal Explosions, and many more. Each item has a listed Credit value that will show
14938-460: The game's physics were "internally consistent", and summarized his experience with the game as "joyful" and rewarding in its progression. The game's physics engine continued to be a point of contention in later reviews, including Steven Burns' review for Videogamer.com , in which he shared his opinion that the speed of the ball should have been increased in certain modes to compensate for the "floaty" physics. Neil Bolt of PlayStation Universe shared
15092-535: The game. In July 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an actor labor union of which numerous video game voice actors are members of, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including Epic Games, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections related to not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create
15246-543: The game. Rocket League was first released on the PlayStation Store and Steam for PlayStation 4 and Windows respectively in July 2015, with ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch being released later on. Physical retail versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were distributed starting in 2016 by 505 Games and later by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment . Versions for macOS and Linux were also released in 2016, but support for their online services
15400-569: The grand finals 4-0 after they completely swept the Spring split, winning the EU Open, Cup and Invitational for the split as well as the Spring Major. Unlike the past two seasons, there was a considerably longer offseason after 2022-23 accompanying the removal of one of the splits, meaning that the 13th season of the RLCS wouldn't begin until January 26, 2024. The 2024 season saw the removal of
15554-451: The ground. The goal of the mode is to damage the opponent's floor enough to break a hole into it, allowing the ball to drop through and score. When a team scores, the floor on the opponent's side of the field resets to normal, while the floor on the scoring team's side retains any existing damage. As part of a means to monetize the game beyond downloadable content, Psyonix has tried a few different approaches. In September 2016, it introduced
15708-468: The headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games. Epic Games developed Unreal Engine , a commercially available game engine which also powers its internally developed video games like Fortnite and the Unreal , Gears of War , and Infinity Blade series. In 2014, Unreal Engine was named the "most successful videogame engine" by Guinness World Records . Epic Games owns
15862-400: The ice hockey mode led to it being extended for a few weeks after the holiday season. Snow Day was permanently added to the mutator settings for private matches and exhibition games on February 10, 2016. Hoops, a game mode based on basketball , was added on April 25, 2016. A separate Rumble mode, which incorporates unusual power-ups, such as the ability to freeze the ball in place or cause
16016-466: The idea of building on Battle-Cars as an option, recognizing the game had a small but dedicated fan-base that provided them with ideas for expansion. These other projects, which including contract work for AAA games , including Mass Effect 3 , helped to fund the development of Rocket League . Full development of Rocket League started around 2013 and took around two years and under $ 2 million to develop, though they had tested various prototypes of
16170-623: The investment, Epic Games was estimated to have a nearly $ 15 billion valuation in October 2018. Besides expanding support for Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, these investments allowed Epic to acquire additional firms. In January 2018, it was announced that Epic had acquired Cloudgine , a developer of cloud-based gaming software. The company also announced the acquisition of Kamu, a firm that offered anti-cheat software called Easy Anti-Cheat, in October 2018. A year later, in January 2019, Epic acquired 3Lateral and Agog Labs. 3Lateral
16324-508: The issues that would arise from that with Rocket League 's fast-paced play style. To solve this, the physics in the game are based on using the Bullet physics engine within the Unreal Engine 3 's PhysX engine, which tracks the movement of all the cars and actors, allowing them to periodically re-synchronize the game state across players based on the stored physics states, which enabled players to have quick reactions from their client. At
16478-473: The item's cost, allowing players to purchase the exact item they want, instead of relying on RNG to attain a specific item previously available through loot boxes. Separately, Psyonix added a battle pass feature to the game in September 2018, known as the Rocket Pass. Each pass, which lasts a few months, has challenges and other opportunities through playing Rocket League that allow players to increase
16632-421: The larger developers' approach to release and quality control, and they were able to apply those principles and aim for the same level of quality requirements in the final release of Rocket League . Psyonix had at one point considered having Rocket League as a free-to-play game with microtransactions , inspired by Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 's models. Though they had put in efforts to establish
16786-530: The metaverse that same month. The company announced in September 2023 that it was laying off 870 employees, along with divesting in Bandcamp to Songtradr and spinning off SuperAwesome into its own company. Sweeney said this move was needed to rein in spending, and did not anticipate there would be further layoffs in the future. Mediatonic reported a significant number of layoffs from their team, but remained part of Epic. On February 7, 2024, Epic Games received
16940-472: The multiplayer gameplay, comparing the "destruction" mechanic to the Burnout series, and praising the overall player experience. In complimenting the game's points system, Elliott recounted, "the most valuable players I encountered were workmanlike wingers who selflessly chugged along the flanks, crossing the ball for greedy goalhunters like me. It stops players from clustering in the same spots and reinforces
17094-443: The normal soccer ball being replaced by a football. A new game mode, Dropshot, was added in a March 2017 update. It takes place in an arena without any goals and a field made of hexagonal tiles, and uses a ball that becomes increasingly electrified after successful strikes or passes. The more the ball is struck by players without touching the ground the more electrified it becomes, and the more tiles it damages once it finally does hit
17248-547: The others and inspired by the Mad Max films, the first of which Psyonix plans to release over time. In June 2016, a new arena, Neo Tokyo, based on the Rocket Labs layout Underpass, was added to the game via an update. The update also introduced cosmetic items awarded at the end of matches with various rarity grades, and gave players the ability to trade multiple items of the same type and rarity grade to obtain an item of
17402-530: The player experience in the game. Criticism was mostly aimed at the game's physics engine, though a consensus on the topic has been mostly unclear, with some defending the engine. In a review of Rocket League 's beta preview, Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews praised Psyonix's approach to updating Battle-Cars using the PlayStation 4's hardware, describing the graphics as "brilliantly detailed" and "crisp", and citing its consistent frame rates throughout. Robert Summa of Destructoid shared Mejia's view that
17556-470: The popularity of Rocket League matches on Twitch and other live streaming platforms like YouTube by early 2016 and were looking to use the game more in Esports. In March 2016, Psyonix announced the first Rocket League Championship Series; the finals took place in June 2016 with a US$ 55,000 prize pool, and was won by Cameron Bills, Brandon Lachin, and Ted Keil of iBUYPOWER Cosmic. The second season of
17710-695: The regional events which qualified them for the World Championship While the Season X World Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic , this format stayed the same for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. For 2024, this would change to two regional splits, each one having their own international Major at the end, followed by the World Championship. Also in 2024, the FIFAe World Cup , organized by FIFA and previously utilizing
17864-499: The release date would Microsoft take the initiative to offer it as one for their new cross-play efforts and started working towards this possibility in the game. Psyonix determined the required technical steps needed to enable cross-platform play and have tested it in closed environments, and were only waiting for the legalities of cross-connecting players between different networks before proceeding. this work also includes how they would be able to distribute updated content patches in
18018-551: The remaining boost amount of their teammates, and how much time was remaining on the game clock when specific comments were made in the chat. Matches are usually five minutes long, with a sudden death overtime if the game is tied at that point. Matches can be played from between one-on-one up to four-on-four players, as well as in casual and ranked playlists. The latter serves as Rocket League 's competitive online mode, where players compete in various tiered ranks within game seasons, with victories or losses raising or lowering
18172-770: The revenue cut that it took for assets sold on the Unreal Engine Marketplace from 30% to 12%. Epic launched the Epic Games Store digital storefront to compete with services like Steam and GOG.com , not only taking a 12% cut of revenue compared to the industry standard of 30%, but also eliminated the 5% cut for games using the Unreal engine sold via the storefront. However the company also refocused its development efforts to provide more support for Unreal and Fortnite by ending support for Paragon and Unreal Tournament . The financial success of Fortnite brought additional investment into Epic Games. Epic Games
18326-400: The right formula, which would become Battle-Cars . Further to the success was the addition of the rocket-powered cars; this originally was to be a simple speed boost, but with the physics engine, they were able to have the vehicles fly off and around the arena, furthering the possibilities for gameplay. As Psyonix finished development of Battle-Cars , the studio had tried to gain access to
18480-399: The same vein as the Counter-Strike skin gambling controversy . The funds from microtransactions would be used to support the esports tournaments organized by Psyonix. In October 2016, a major update titled "Aquadome" launched, featuring a new arena placed under the sea, along with two new premium water-themed cars, and a new crate containing new items and seven new achievements. Psyonix
18634-415: The series, Gears of War 3 , came out in 2011. In 2011, Epic's subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards , Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite . In June 2012, Epic announced that it was opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of 38 Studios ' Big Huge Games . Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012. However,
18788-572: The standard PlayStation 4 to approach constant 60 frames-per-second for most arenas and modes. After reviewing the feasibility of doing so, Psyonix announced that Rocket League would also be released for the Nintendo Switch , as revealed during Nintendo 's press conference during E3 2017 . It was released later that year on November 14, and includes Nintendo property customization options, including Mario , Luigi , and Metroid -inspired car designs, and supports cross-platform play with
18942-491: The studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013. Epic fully acquired People Can Fly in August 2012, rebranding them as Epic Games Poland in November 2013 as they began work on Fortnite alongside Epic. Epic alongside People Can Fly made one last game in the Gears of War series that served as a prequel to the other games, Gears of War: Judgement , which was released in 2013. At this point, Epic had considered developing
19096-551: The studio, and sharing profits, following Epic's recouping of its investment, 50/50 with the studio. The company expanded their publishing options in October 2021 with Spry Fox and Eyes Out. Unreal Engine 5 was announced on May 13, 2020, with plans for an early 2022 release. Alongside this announcement, Epic released its Epic Online Services, a free SDK toolset for online matchmaking and other similar cross-platform play support features based on Fortnite . Epic further waived all Unreal license fees retroactively for games up through
19250-500: The team behind it was continuing to develop social apps for Epic's platforms. In November 2019, Epic acquired Quixel, the world's largest photogrammetry asset library which makes 3D models of objects based on real-world high-definition photography. Epic plans to open Quixel's existing library of models to users of Unreal Engine, while the Quixel staff will continue to build out its assets within Epic. The company acquired Cubic Motion,
19404-467: The team opted to strip the game to its core, focusing on more visual elements to enhance the title. From Battle-Cars , Psyonix recognized very few players actually went online, and developed Rocket League 's single-player season mode to encourage players to try online matches once they completed it. Psyonix's team were aware of past difficulties that they had with Battle-Cars and other racing games with online play and client-side prediction , and
19558-477: The teams' path to the Cup and some of the match results, which aired on TBS later in the month. The 2020s brought significant changes to Rocket League esports. RLCS Season X would bring the addition of a new competitive format which featured 3 separate regional splits, each one having their own international Majors, followed by the season-ending World Championship. Teams were awarded points based on how they placed in
19712-490: The technology from 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel, the MetaHuman Creator is a browser-based application to allow game developers to create realistic human characters within a short amount of time starting from various presets, and then can be exported as pre-made models and animation files ready for use in Unreal Engine. Epic announced a partnership with Cesium in March 2021 to bring its 3D geospatial data as
19866-399: The theatrical release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , Psyonix released Jurassic Park and Jurassic World -themed content, including a Jurassic Park -themed Jeep Wrangler car model. In September 2015, Psyonix held a cross-promotion with Torn Banner Studios , adding two free new flags themed after Torn Banner's Chivalry: Medieval Warfare . At the same time the "Chaos Run" DLC
20020-554: The tier of the Pass, from which new unique customization options tied to that pass can be unlocked. While the Rocket Pass is free to all players, a flat-cost premium option that accelerates the level up rate and unlocks additional items at certain tier levels can be purchased. Its mobile game version, Rocket League Sideswipe , plays almost the same, except the game is now in 2D instead of 3D. Psyonix had previously developed Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars in 2008 for
20174-531: The time of Battle-Cars , Psyonix could not afford a dedicated server network and were forced to rely on individual hosts, which could lead to poor performance with slow Internet connections. With Rocket League , Psyonix was able to put a dedicated server network in place, writing their own service protocols to interface with Sony's and Valve's online services so as to enable cross-platform play, as well as improving matchmaking capabilities. Psyonix's previous experience in contract work for AAA games had exposed them to
20328-703: The time of Tencent's acquisition, was estimated to be worth $ 4.5 billion in July 2018 due to Fortnite Battle Royale , and expected to surpass $ 8.5 billion by the end of 2018 with projected growth of the game. Player count continued to expand when Epic broke new ground by convincing Sony to change its stance on cross-platform play allowing players on any device to compete with each other in Fortnite Battle Royale . Fortnite has drawn nearly 250 million players as of March 2019. Fortnite ' s commercial success enabled Epic to make several changes to its other product offerings. In July 2018, it reduced
20482-457: The total player base and could not justify keeping these as supported platforms as they advanced the other platforms to newer technology, such as moving the Windows version from DirectX 9 to 11. The developer offered full refunds to the game for macOS and Linux owners regardless of how long they had the game. Psyonix teamed with Internal Drive to provide Rocket League as part of the latter's iD Tech summer educational camps for children, using
20636-553: The two teams, using "rocket-powered" vehicles to hit a ball into their opponent's goal and score points over the course of a match. The game includes single-player and multiplayer modes that can be played both locally and online, including cross-platform play between all versions. Psyonix began formal development of Rocket League around 2013, refining the gameplay from Battle-Cars to address criticism and fan input. Psyonix also recognized their lack of marketing from Battle-Cars and engaged in both social media and promotions to market
20790-435: The unexpected success of ZZT , caused in most part by the easy modifiability of the game using Sweeney's custom ZZT-oop programming language, that made Sweeney consider turning Potomac Computer Systems into a video game company. ZZT was sold through bulletin board systems , while all orders were fulfilled by Sweeney's father, Paul Sweeney. The game sold several thousand copies as of May 2009, and Paul Sweeney still lived at
20944-421: The user. Epic received another $ 1 billion each from Sony and from Kirkbi , the parent company of The Lego Group , in April 2022 for continued support of building out Epic's metaverse. These investments gave Kirkbi 3% ownership and increased Sony's to 4.9%. With these investments, Epic had an estimated valuation of $ 32 billion . Epic and Lego also announced their partnership to build a child-friendly space in
21098-527: Was "a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders". Dunham says that in contrast to Microsoft or Nintendo, who agreed to allow cross-platform play within a month and with the day of Psyonix' request, respectively, Sony has been asked on a nearly daily basis about this support and have yet to receive any definitive answer. The cross-platform party feature is planned for an update in early 2019. This will allow players to create in-game friend lists across platforms and play in matches with them. This
21252-796: Was able to make licensing agreements to include vehicles and decorative items from other franchises within the game. On launch, the PlayStation 4 version included Sweet Tooth 's car from the Twisted Metal series. As a separate DLC, the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future film franchise, was released on October 21, 2015, corresponding with Back to the Future Day . The Xbox One release includes platform-exclusive Gears of War and Halo -themed vehicles. The Batmobile , as seen in
21406-436: Was added in Season 4. The two teams finishing at the bottom of the RLCS and the two teams finishing at the top of the RLRS for each region play each other in a promotion tournament at the end of the season to determine if teams are promoted or relegated. At the advent of Season 5 in June 2018, Psyonix organised and managed the event alone. Previous to this, they partnered with Twitch. Season 6 started in September 2018 and featured
21560-477: Was added in an update in May 2016. Microsoft has stated that they offer other networks, such as Sony's PlayStation Network, the ability to integrate with Xbox Live to allow full cross-platform compatibility for games like Rocket League . Dunham noted that this cross-platform idea had been something they asked Microsoft about when Rocket League was set for an Xbox One release, but he stated that Microsoft did not seem to be on board with it. Only after they had neared
21714-483: Was announced in March 2021 and replicates the gameplay of the original game, but in a two-dimensional space . Players compete in short 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 matches that are played online. They can also play volleyball, heatseeker, basketball or 3-on-3 matches. Rocket Racing is a racing spin-off title by Psyonix which released in Fortnite on December 8, 2023. It was teased as one of the three new game modes as part of
21868-598: Was announced that Rocket League would be ported to macOS and Linux later that year, in order to run natively with SteamOS hardware; Rocket League and Portal 2 were part of incentives for those that pre-ordered a Steam Link , a Steam Controller , or a Steam Machine . The game's second DLC pack, titled Revenge of the Battle-Cars , was released in October 2015. The DLC adds two more cars from Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars , along with exclusive cosmetics for both. In another event, players had
22022-556: Was announced that the game would be ported to Xbox One , where it was released on February 17, including most of the previous DLC packs for free. Ports for macOS and Linux were released on September 8, 2016. A retail version of Rocket League , in form of the game's Collector's Edition , was announced in February 2016, and was released in Europe on June 24, 2016, and in North America on July 5, 2016. The Collector's Edition
22176-482: Was broadcast across its eight worldwide regions in July–August 2017. Starting in September 2017, Psyonix and Tespa , a collegiate esports organizer, held the first collegiate tournament for teams to win a share of $ 50,000 in scholarships. In December 2017, Turner Sports organized a US$ 150,000 ELEAGUE Cup event for eight teams was broadcast live on streaming media, with a three-part series of shows detailing some of
22330-477: Was directed towards the game's physics engine . It has since been considered one of the greatest video games ever made . The game earned many industry awards and saw over 10 million sales and 40 million players by the beginning of 2018. Rocket League has also been adopted as an esport , with professional players participating through ESL and Major League Gaming along with Psyonix's own Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS). Rocket League 's gameplay
22484-426: Was dropped in 2020. Rocket League is developed under the games as a service model; later updates for the game enabled the ability to modify core rules and added new game modes, including ones based on ice hockey and basketball . Rocket League was praised for its gameplay improvements over Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle-Cars , as well as its graphics and overall presentation, although some criticism
22638-536: Was launching a new scripted entertainment division in October 2021, bringing on three former executives from Lucasfilm to manage it, with initial plans for a Fortnite film. In February 2022, Epic Games announced that at least half a billion accounts have been created on its platform. Epic released the initial beta version of RealityScan, a mobile app that uses the tools from Capturing Reality and Quixel, in April 2022. RealityScan allows users to create 3D models that can be imported into Sketchfab using photos taken by
22792-414: Was made to align Rocket League's cosmetic and item shop policies with Epic's standards, and to enable the possibility of cross-game ownership of Rocket League vehicles in other Epic Games titles. Psyonix had observed the popularity of Rocket League matches on Twitch and other live streaming platforms, and in February 2016, were looking to use the game more in esports . In March 2016, Psyonix announced
22946-476: Was one of eleven companies selected to be part of the Disney Accelerator program in 2017, providing Epic equity investment and access to some of Disney's executives, and potential opportunity to work with Disney in the future. Disney had selected both Epic and aXiomatic as potential leads in the growing esports arena. Epic's has used its windfall to support its products. In January 2019, following
23100-456: Was published by Electronic Arts . By 1997, Epic MegaGames had 50 people working for them worldwide. In 1998, Epic MegaGames released Unreal , a 3D first-person shooter co-developed with Digital Extremes , which expanded into a series of Unreal games . The company also began to license the core technology, the Unreal Engine , to other game developers. In February 1999, Epic MegaGames announced that they had moved their headquarters to
23254-496: Was released, Psyonix added free cosmetics and accessories from the Portal series by Valve . Themed content based on Goat Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator were added to the game in April 2016 as part of cross-promotional deals with those games. Other themed promotional content includes decorative items based on The Witcher and Worms W.M.D . With the release of the basketball game mode in 2016, Psyonix partnered with
23408-431: Was released, Psyonix released an update that added game modes known as mutators, modifying some aspects of gameplay, such as increased or decreased gravity, ball size, ball speed and bounciness. For the 2015 holiday season, another update replaced mutator matches with an ice hockey -inspired mode (called Snow Day), played on an ice rink and the ball replaced with a hockey puck with different physics. Positive reception to
23562-482: Was situated. Out of this location, Sweeney started Potomac Computer Systems as a computer consulting business but later figured that it would be too much work he would have to put into keeping the business stable, and scrapped the idea. After finishing his game ZZT , Sweeney opted to re-use the Potomac Computer Systems name to release the game to the public in January 1991. It was only with
23716-699: Was the Blender Foundation in July 2019, having received $ 1.2 million from the MegaGrants funding, to help them to improve and professionalize their Blender tools for 3D art creation. Epic Games was given the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Special Award in June 2019 for its past and continuing developments for the Unreal Engine, a software which also earned it the Engineering Excellence Award from
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