Is Rocket League Doomed?

After various controversies involving the future of the game, including the removal of player-to-player trading (set to happen next month), more than ever, Rocket League’s place as a major figure in the multiplayer space, has been put into question.
Is Rocket League doomed?
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Sources:
Trailer Footage: ‪@RocketLeague‬
Rocket League News: www.rocketleag...
BLIND TRADING WITH ITEM STACKING IS INTENSE! (Jon Sandman) - • BLIND TRADING WITH ITE...
Epic Games Has OFFICIALLY Ended Rocket League... [NO MORE TRADING] (pickapixel) - • Epic Games Has OFFICIA...
#rocketleague #trading

[@NorthstarUK]

Abit more of a laid-back style of video to get back into the groove. It's also my birthday, so if you could subscribe that would be cool 🥺👉👈

[@mihaiteodor7763]

Happy birthday! Been subscribed to you for a few months! Keep up the grind!

[@mike_nelson]

Happy birthday young sir, Sending this message before watching the whole video but I am sure it is full of great deductive reasoning as always!

[@karstar7362]

Happy birthday! Love your content I've watched everything you've put out for the last year and will continue to.

[@Upbeat_14VODS]

Happy birthday!

[@krystalwhispers]

Happy Brit-hday!! hehe get it?

[@COVID_Is_Not_Over_Yet]

in a few years, i think rl will be completely dead, especially if trading isn’t added back or a new type of trading system. if every season continues to be the same, it will die. the july 2021 “rl is dying” situation was real and it’s sad to see.

[@NorthstarUK]

I do wonder what it would take for Epic to decide to sunset Rocket League, they do have pretty high standards

[@destinedwarlord2128]

@COVID_Is_Not_Over_Yet If we're talking "completely dead" in terms of "there are insufficient players to play matches with", then really, it would require a major amount of willful self-sabotage to make this happen for Rocket League by your timeline of ~2027. And no, I'm not talking monetisation changes, which have rightfully done little to impact the game's playerbase. What has happened to trading, while unfortunate and an overall negative change for the players, it won't actually cause any real dip in playerbase. People largely don't play the game for the cosmetics. I'm talking gameplay changes. The area of the game where for the past 8.5 years, including over 4 years of Epic presiding over Psyonix, it hasn't been changed in any major way short of flip resets being inadvertently added, which was over 7 years ago now. Unless they completely spoil the gameplay loop, your prophecy isn't going to remotely come to pass. Currently the playerbase remains roughly double of what it was pre-F2P. The playerbase would have to approach what it was in the beta stage before any calls of true death could actually be made. I don't see that happening at all. This prediction is off by at least 5 years, as honestly the only thing that can stop Rocket League's dominance is a true competitor. No competitor, no playerbase dip. Nobody's developing that right now, so I give RL at least another decade, and then who knows what could happen.

[@destinedwarlord2128]

@@NorthstarUK I think it should be acknowledged that Psyonix have basically been attached to the hip of Epic since the beginning back in 2001. Epic are who gave Psyonix their first offices to work out of, and Psyonix were Epic's go-to contractor for vehicular aspects and multiplayer for the better part of a decade. They have a relationship really no other acquired company/game under Epic's umbrella has, which is something that was certainly missed by your video by skating past the pre-F2P history (although honestly there are plenty of people who have covered that, even recently). For Epic to actually sunset Rocket League, unlike, say, the development team of Fall Guys, it would take a hell of a lot. Rocket League is Epic's tentpole acquisition game. If RL fails, then it likely means everything else failed as well long beforehand. It likely means Epic's attempt to get one over Valve/Steam not only failed but completely blew up in their face (although arguably they're already fighting a losing battle, they still have a foot in the door as of right now). So I don't really think it's an argument worth considering at this point. RL is still set up for a long history ahead of it, and it would require a fundamental failure in how RL's gameplay is handled to cause Epic to pull the plug.

[@ripit.3457]

As long as Esports is alive and well rl will never die. removing trading doesn’t have as big an impact as you guys seem to thing it does.

[@UberDragon]

Removing trading, removing dropshot. Playing this game just gets better and better. Can we just go back to Rocket League how it was in 2017? I think knockout bash is the only positive thing to happen to rocket league since then.

[@SuperSirianRigel]

Somebody else noticed the player count change. Was wondering if anyone else mentioned it anywhere. How about the fact that they've removed it all together now? Not even that whole "Amazing. Great. Good." system remains.

[@xSTONYTARKx]

I hadn't even noticed, but damn!

[@karstar7362]

I feel like the bump at the start of new seasons doesn't seem to be as big as it used to. I know I used to get excited before the end of a season and start of a new season, but I don't get that feeling anymore. I think its because the rewards for the end of the season used to drive me to get better and get that next reward and because everything seems the same Im not driven to get better at least not be the prospect of season rewards. That was never a big factor for me but it was a cool thing to get at the end of a season I just don't care about rewards anymore they all just seem reused now as do all the new items recently. I would like to see some new fields like maybe a field with the goals on an upper platform so you had to shoot upward or something. Maybe 1 with a hump in the middle could be fun because the defender is already under the ball and you don't have to waste time setting up an air dribble. I think people hated the unstandardized fields back in the day (I started playing in 2016) because we weren't good enough. I've play 2v2s on Tokyo underpass and double goal and they are a lot of fun now that we as a community have become good enough to use the different nuances of these maps. I just want to see some effort being put into the GAME aspect of Rocket League we are missing anything new other then limited modes since dropshot. We saw more new things added in the year after Rocket League original came out then we have in the 4 years Epic games has owned Psyonix. Psyonix said when they were first bought by Epic that all it was going to do was help them achieve there vision for Rocket League. All its seem to do is slow Psyonix down or stop them completely. Nobody knows were Psyonix even wants to take Rocket League and maybe that would be a good first step. Telling us what they want to do for the game. I would feel a lot better about what's going on if they showed us that they had some sort of direction. Sorry for the world longest comment, but I feel strongly about this. I hope we see something good come out of Rocket League soon P.S. Happy birthday love your content been watching for about a year, and I watch every video you put out. Also I love your voice Edit just relieve I was a bit late on the happy birthday but it was still November 30th when I posted this comment cause Im from Texas :)

[@Matteroll]

I just wanted to say, those in-game scenic shots like the close up of the rain in Neo Tokyo are just so clean and great. Quite a simple yet unique way to show the game through a different lens.

[@NorthstarUK]

Thanks! It's kind of this channel's bread and butter; super easy to do and stops me from just using regular gameplay all the time.

[@jdhill9184]

It will go dead soon , no trading , the rewards are trash every season , minimal new black markets get added , the ranks are all over the place

[@Its_Stunt]

Im suprised people still remember the culling, that thing was like ark + fortnite sad to see it die

[@DaxRaider]

the one amazing thing that epic did, that rly REALLY made this game a better enviorment and was just fantastic was the removal of the crates/key system. gambling is a huge problem in games and i can tell you that there is no way in hell epic makes even half as much money with their store as they did with keys and crates, lootboxes are just horrible for gamers and fantastic for companies bleeding out the most vulnerable players so having that removed was fantastic.

[@NorthstarUK]

100% agree actually.

[@TDM_]

I'd honestly say the opposite, sure there was a gambling type of system, but I'd rather have that system then have the blueprints system. You rarely get anything decent along with drops having no way to see what new items are added to the game. So it's either paying $25 for one item or have 25 chances to get that item, except the crate removal/item shop addition also caused prices to be higher as it was a lot harder to get rarer items. I say $25 because they are infliting the prices in the shop to 2200-2300 credits and the only amount of credits you can buy is 1100 twice or 3000 credits so they give uneven prices to force people to pay more for an item. Epic did this intentionally as more of a money grab, not to make it a better environment for kids from gambling.

[@mike_nelson]

They did not do it willingly, regardless of the positive outcome. EU laws were passed (incorrect as per Edit below) and Rocket League was one of the few games in the direct firing line. Epic made the choice they _had_ to make, they just did it in a way which seemed like a positive thing for them to do. At least that's how I understood it or remember it. It has been a while since I read about this so I cannot say with certainty! Edit: just did some quick reading, seems to be a fragmentated approach to Loot Crates across Europe, with different member states having different classifications but some with no laws in place. The UK for example has classified loot crates as gambling but still have yet to write up a law to define an approach to it, despite strict gambling laws as a whole. It also appears to have changed because of a class action lawsuit which Epic lost in 2019, not an EU law issue. Apologies for posting incorrect information.

[@destinedwarlord2128]

@@TDM_ Your math is all wrong there. The only item shop/blueprint items that cost 2500 credits (roughly equivalent to $25USD) are painted Black Market items. To be generous and say we're just aiming for the 2000-2200 credits unpainted Black Market item, with the crates system you had a 1% chance of it dropping. That means on average, you had to open 100 crates for a single black market item. More than 50% of the time, you had to open more. The system was absolutely brutal this way. Most of the time, you were paying over 100 bucks for a single Black Market, which was often barely worth a tenth of that on the market. The idea of getting a black market within 20, 25 crates is a trap. It happened, sure, but not often at all. You would have to open hundreds of crates before you got that sort of luck most of the time. I'm not giving massive praise to the blueprint/item shop system. The prices are still not good, $20 is still too much for one item. However, it is a damn sight better than it was 5 years ago. That's why everybody traded for those items, because opening crates was nigh on total stupidity. At least you have a guarantee of what you're getting rather than a venus flytrap. Oh, by the way, Psyonix are who set the credit purchasing amounts up, way back in 2016. If you want somebody to blame, look at them. They're the real pioneers of greed here.

[@drwhothehell]

people can call the game dying all they want, or doomed, or say "trading is going to kill the game", without acknowledging the fact that game is having a daily player count of almost 400k every single day (based on what RLGarage says), and likely way over half of those players dont give a shit about cosmetics. The game is going to last a long time, with or without trading and other changes to the game. Players like consistency, so makes sense why updates that change core parts of the game rarely happen.

[@Upbeat_14VODS]

To me, and I am not the first to say this, but Rocket League is moving towards the direction of sideswipe's current state. Games that can "run themselves" if just barely enough of content is pumped into them. We have seen that recently with the collabs with Disney, the promised UI changes that should have come a long time ago for them to be meaningful, and the possibility of ranked being reworked. As per the RL Racing leaks and the sealed fate of RL Trading, epic continues to put forth the message of RL being a money-generating machine rather than a game with a community. Because the "merger" (if you want to call it that) of RL with the community of Fortnite through RL Racing is not from community interest, I would argue, and that it is because RL has in fact been dying with player numbers, and they plan on boosting that before intermingling the RL community with that of Fortnite - as Fortnite has been generating money in a similar fashion to how RL -will be- after trading is removed. My prediction is that in the months ahead the overall RL community will die a soft death, while the RLCS and community leagues (Frontier Doubles League, MLE, RL Underground) will stick to it for the joy of the game until enough interest is lost, but after its death (even beginning now, i.e. the ui changes) Epic will "Make it look pretty enough" through small changes here and there so that by the time RL Racing rolls around a Fornite player could pick up RL and go, "oh, this is a lot like Fortnite!"

[@paulfowler]

I have been playing for a while now and I love this game how ever I will not be buying any more items or rocket pass or anything else because of the no player trading and i know i am not the only one and that will kill the game by itself

[@cornbread3497]

Trading gone, mmr crunched, Smurfs rampant= ded

[@aqua-bery]

The game has a really dedicated core audience so even if rocketleague dies, I'm pretty sure someone will make a free and OSS clone where players host their own servers

[@RynoJ5]

as soon as epic joined psyonix, I knew they were eventually gonna ruin it by making it a money grab

[@nezzled]

5:35 not fully true, imo. I think passguessing for accounts with good items is only going to increase and it'll just shift from one medium of scams to another.

[@COVID_Is_Not_Over_Yet]

short answer: yes until UE5

[@mike_nelson]

I am perhaps blindly optimistic that this is all to do with a transition into a reboot of the game in UE5, or some sort of non numerical sequel which will have al the features they are needlessly taking away returned. I'd like to say I have faith in some qualified personnel in the high-up positions whom are making these decisions with good reason - but you only have to look at companies like Disney to see that top people can sometimes just be very bad at their jobs, respective to their current agendas. One thing that typifies the nonsensical thinking of Epic, is to take away the Extra modes from competitive in this style of rotation. I can imagine it was done to stimulate players trying those modes out more, but for the long term players it is simply removing an incentive to play those modes at all when they aren't in the competitive rotation. I hope, I long for a UE5 announcement which may never come, as I absolutely adore this game and its unique expression through physics, team sports and equality of opportunity from a non micro transaction perspective (minus the recent furore). a 4v4 or even 5v5 competitive mode on much larger maps would just add a whole new dimension, and for streamers alike. Something so simple yet they do not add it. Bizarre logic, unless there are some behind the scenes plotting for growth we just cannot see.

[@pronoun171]

This all of our Hopium, RL2 on UE5

[@isaakvandaalen3899]

tbh as long as other people are playing the game, I'll be playing. RL Esport is great and I do love watching it, but it's not the reason I play. I play RL because I enjoy it so as long as I can get games I'll be playing.

[@Quell__]

Rocket League is the only game where I spent 40 hours until it actually made fun for me lol Now I love it and I have 279 hours on steam, I have the goal of getting to champ 1 (d2 division 3 rn solo Queueing Duos) its Hard to predict the trendiness of an entertainment product but I dont think it will die off soon. 1. It has no competition, no game is similar to Rocket League 2. Epic has quite a lot of cash to pump it back up to popularity and they are not as braindead as Ubisoft (Fortnites move to OG season for example) 3. I does not feel like the player fatigue or frustration is high enough for people to consider abandoning rocket league. 4, It simply perfected the gameplay formula in this niche. The gameplay is so addicting because of the absurd skill ceiling that you dont need big updates to keep it going

[@niismo.]

1:12 good, as this very moment already made me know where the future would take us, and how RL is gonna be ripped of it's glory. Pulse Fire's and JHZER's latest videos sum up my thoughts perfectly.

[@kramerius2219]

why does everyone think that trading being removed is going to help with scamming? if anything the "black/grey market" is going to be even MORE of a problem because instead of buying scammed items ppl are gonna start buying scammed ACCOUNTS

[@n0rbert79]

To make it survive we need to have an open source alternative, like OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon) or like RVGL (Re-Volt).

[@EDANBURGH]

Can anyone tell me what the wheels are on the Dominus at 4:20?

[@Chizinky]

most of the content creators are now just disappearing and its kinda sad given epic doesn't seem to really care either.

[@spyro91rep.productions22]

To me it doesn’t matter what epic’s trying to do. They keep breaking the game more and more to me I do love rocket league is fun but it’s needs lots of fixes yes the new content about more stuff coming but it’s very too late if trading is removed many people like me go somewhere else to play like more on stream like team fortress 2 battle bit and so on plus I am not going to play epic stupid luncher no matter there force is we have the right to refuse as a costumer ether fix the launcher platform or suffer the consequences. And epic is really big trouble especially lawsuits people not playing the launcher and losing money there going to be bankrupt next year unless they change ther act Tim Sweeney SUCKS!

[@Innercynic]

Reminds me when I played soccer when I was young, but there was never any new content in the game so the game died. 🤔

[@princetbz1102]

It only died to you cause you lost interest. Its the most popular sport in the world EA Sports added clubs and stuff so maybe RL could implement that

[@vtgamer151]

With the fact that geometry dash 2.2 HAS to come out this month, I'd say most games are doomed right now

[@ZEROVOK]

those fkin notification sounds dude xd btw I hope RL will never die, da only game I play. Quake and Cs havent died yet so...

[@NorthstarUK]

Games come and go, but Rocket League is still fun!

[@gangstaboy9387]

Sadly if you count all Quake games out there, from 1 to Champions, there are roughly 1500 daily players with Quake champions having the most with 500. So I would say that it's fairly dead even though it's the game I mostly play. You're right about CS though

[@ZEROVOK]

I just can't imagine a world without RL.@@NorthstarUK

[@ZEROVOK]

I didn't know the numbers, I assumed it's a bit more, but still after decades it is not bad at all! Occasionally I play Quake Live, I enjoy Instagib a lot. I hope RL will always have a lot of players or some1 can make a replica game after it dies.@@gangstaboy9387

[@SuperSirianRigel]

You didn't mention how Epic Games is going to literally put at least Some Form of Rocket League in Fortnite. The leak that Rocket League racing is going to happen in Fortnite; instead of inside Rocket League itself, is a big white elephant. Could the whole game just be thrown into Fortnite in the future?

[@Mosi_O]

=( the wasted potential of Rocket League the good times that I had in this game yeah I'm just sad about it, and I hope for the better future, despite it has little chance...

[@Elyseon]

It's been going downhill since they sold out to Epic.

[@Angel-ns4km]

Hear me out: December 5th rl trading is removed & GTA VI trailer drops.

[@Cheeri0zRL]

Bro the menu sound effects in the video are tripping me up because i have rl open in the background xD

[@NorthstarUK]

In the next video I'll just randomly throw in a match start sound to really throw you off 😉

[@karstar7362]

@@NorthstarUK That is evil 😈

[@LessonsFromAnime]

Return of the KING

[@GermanElias-hd6lc]

Epic’s greediness is what’s killing it

[@GerryJr-ni2et]

I agree with you dude

[@DanDaFreakinMan]

Fortnite's way of operation is harmful for almost any game really.

[@shadowgun6966]

but epic sucks

[@ToothpasteJuice]

I think wokeness kills everything it touches. When I saw johnnyboi promoting BLM and affirmative action, and when I saw more biological men winning the women's league than biological women; that's when I realized the clock was ticking.

[@scaladeUK]

you fucking what bruv 🤣

[@rraaiin]

schizo grindset

[@U9DATE]

I understand wokeness is an issue but could you explain how Rocket League is being woke? How does BLM and trans people in sports affect rocket league?

[@aaronperry5813]

Could become the Biggest game of all time if they do unreal engine 5 right

[@ripit.3457]

They aren’t going to swap to UE5. they’d have to remake the game from the ground up.

[@aaronperry5813]

@@ripit.3457 can’t they just chuck it on Fortnite? I’m a rocket league player. I wouldn’t care having to launch RL through there if it’s UE5