Rocket League is going free-to-play later this summer

Rocket League is going free-to-play for all platforms, with its summer update also offering some pivotal improvements. 

In a statement, developers Psyonix, has described the change as the "next chapter of Rocket League" with the switch to free-to-play also coming at the same time as the game being made available on the Epic Games Store for the first time. Can you see where this is going? Yup, Rocket League will be removed from Steam for new players in favour of it being solely available on the Epic Games Store. Lucky you're switching over to using GOG Galaxy 2.0, right?

Existing owners of the game on Steam will continue to receive updates and support so there's no need to worry there. This solely concerns new installs which will need to go the Epic route. Epic Games acquired Psyonix last year, so this is a move that was bound to happen sooner or later.

The summer update also brings with it a new cross-platform progression system that will require an Epic Games Store account to use. This allows users to access all their items, rankings, and rocket pass progression across all platforms with relative ease. Current owners will also be rewarded with Legacy status which gives them some useful bonuses. That includes all the DLC released for the game, a snazzy 'EST 20XX' title that denotes the year they purchased the game, and 200+ common items will be upgraded to 'Legacy' quality. There's also a Golden Cosmos boost for them, Dieci-Oro wheels, and a huntress player banner for old-hands at the game.

For everyone, the summer update will also provide refined main menus to make exploring the game simpler, along with revamps and improvements to major features like Tournaments and Challenges. No word yet on what that actually entails. 

Similarly, there's no specific release date for the free-to-play transition but we'd expect it to be fairly soon given we're in summer now. Place a tentative guess on August and we reckon you'll be correct.