Rocket League's car kickabout goes free next week
Driving away from Steam, for free
Rocket League is almost, finally free. A little over 5 years after its debut, videogames' favourite vehicular footy match is going free-to-play and moving to a new home on the Epic Games Store next Wednesday, September 23rd. It's leaving Steam to do so, sadly - but if you pick up the keys within a month of its Epic debut, you'll snag a free $10 to spend on Sweeney's storefront.
Going free means I may finally get around to filling the car-football shaped hole in my library - I'll just have to do it somewhere other than Steam.
There's a bit of a sting regarding Rocket League's inbound free-to-play switch, mind. See, Psyonix's car kickabout is leaving Steam for Epic Games Store exclusivity, where it'll launch next week. On the plus side, adding Rocket League to your library for the first month following release will give you a $10 coupon to spend on Epic, alongside two exclusive cosmetics - a Sun Ray Boost and Hot Rocks Trail.
The free to play update also comes alongside a few other gifts, mind. According to the update's blog post, competitive tournaments and ranked play kick off next Wednesday. Game-wide challenges, a battle-pass style list of objectives to complete for XP and loot, also arrive alongside, while "Legacy" players who've owned Rocket League prior to July's announcement will also get their special cosmetics next week.
While Rocket League will be removed from Steam store listings next week, it'll still be playable on the platform and receive updates. For folks who want to make the jump, however, next week's update also brings in cross-platform progression between Steam, Epic, and console editions. Instructions for how to link your accounts can be found on an official blog post.
Finally, Rocket League is getting a special "Llama-Rama" event with Fortnite the weekend after launch. More deets on that should arrive in the next few days.