Rocket League Disappears From Steam - Here's Why
There are some big changes shipping for Rocket League today. Not only does today mark a rather massive shift to a free-to-play model for Rocket League, but it's also the end of an era for the game. With this free-to-play launch, Rocket League has officially left Steam – from here on out, the only place to get the game on PC is through the Epic Games Store.
That isn't quite as dire a change as it might sound on the surface. While Rocket League has been delisted from Steam, all of those who already own the game through Steam can continue to play it there. As it isn't being removed from Steam libraries, players can continue to re-download the game through Steam as well.
If you didn't purchase Rocket League through Steam before today, you'll have to get the game through the Epic Games Store. Along with this free-to-play launch, which happened earlier this morning, Psyonix and Epic Games have launched the Season One Rocket Pass on all platforms, which features a Harbinger Car Body for players who climb the ranks. As a nice little bonus, this free-to-play shift means that PlayStation Plus is no longer required to play Rocket League online on PS4.
The patch notes for Rocket League's free-to-play change introduce some changes to competitive ranks as well as various improvements to challenges. New challenges players will be able to complete include weekly, seasonal, and event challenges, along with a set of New Driver Challenges meant specifically for new players. Each player will get a grand total of three weekly challenges every week, so frequent Rocket League players now have some short-term goals to chase as they play.
You can check out the Rocket League website for the full patch notes for today's update, but at the moment, it seems that Rocket League's online component is having issues thanks to a larger outage with Epic Online Services. Indeed, this outage is particularly bad timing for Rocket League, as tournaments, challenges, and "other Rocket League features" are being impacted by it. Hopefully Epic is able to iron out these issues soon so people can actually start playing.