The feud between PC gaming storefronts Steam and the Epic Games Store is still burning bright, with the latter recently throwing down the gauntlet and suggesting it would drop its controversial pursuit of exclusive titles if Steam is willing to pay game developers a bigger cut.
Now, the Fortnite creator has acquired Psyonix, the development studio responsible for breakthrough cars-meet-soccer hit Rocket League, and has potentially suggested that it will become exclusive to the Epic Games storefront in late 2019.
“Now that we have joined forces with Epic, we will be able to serve our community in even bigger and better ways,” the announcement reads. “In the short term, nothing will change at all [...], 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.”
- Epic Games Store to keep nabbing exclusives, even with titles already on Steam
- Borderlands 3 launches in September – as an Epic Games Store exclusive
- Epic Games Store would drop exclusives if Steam only took 12% of dev revenue
While the statement seems to purposefully avoid any explicit commitments regarding platform availability, it does not rule out the possibility that the game could be removed from sale on Steam at a later date. A similar situation has already occurred with the release of Metro Exodus earlier this year, when the first-person shooter was slated for a Steam launch, but was then made exclusive to Epic Games Store – albeit, while still honoring any initial Steam pre-orders.
After making the announcement, Psyonix added an amendment to the article stating that “Rocket League is and remains available on Steam. Anyone who owns Rocket League through Steam can still play it and can look forward to continued support.”
For any PC gamers who'd prefer to own the game on Steam but haven't already made the purchase, the clock may be ticking.
As for the future of the game, Psyonix promises that it’s still the same team that has been responsible for the title thus far, despite now being owned by Epic Games, and will continue to serve up frequent updates, new features and content and new ways to play the game.
