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How Rocket League Brought Psyonix Back From the Brink (redbull.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Rocket League has proved to be the surprise hit of the year, but a new interview with Dave Hagewood, CEO of developer Psyonix reveals that it almost didn't happen at all. After the failure of PS3 predecessor Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, the team were forced to work on the multiplayer game in between contracts, and when one fell through late last year, it looked like the end for Rocket League. The studio gambled that the concept would take off this time, and it did — now the studio has to fend off offers from movie studios who want to feature their iconic cars in the game. Hagewood also hints that news of the Xbox One version fans have been clamouring for is coming, and soon: "We're looking at all kinds of platforms and there may be some announcements coming up at some point – hopefully before the end of the year."

33 comments

  1. Valve's use of it as a Promotion Pre-order bonus. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They've been giving out free copies of it for awhile with anyone that preordered any of their new hardware.
    I got a copy to give, and gave it to my kiddo who LOVES the game. I had no idea what it was before.

    Valve's use of it as a promotion has likely helped it get out there dramatically as well.

  2. Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars

    Maybe the name was the problem?

    1. Re:Marketing by Sowelu · · Score: 0

      Probably very yes. That name just screams "this game is trash and we don't have any respect for our own creation".

    2. Re:Marketing by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 2

      Have to admit though...it has a certain rhythm to it's syllables that make it ideal for a repetitive chant.

      su.per.son.ic
      ac.ro.ba.tic
      Ro.ket.pow.ered
      batt.le.cars

      Kinda reminds me of a pep-rally.

    3. Re:Marketing by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      su.per.son.ic
      ac.ro.ba.tic
      Ro.ket.pow.ered
      batt.le.cars

      Actually, you can sing it to the TMNT theme song...racers in a drag shell,rocket power!

    4. Re:Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thinking same thing...
      Had tune in my head as I was reading it...
      Scrolled down...
      Was not disappointed...
      Was kind of surprised...

  3. What? by OverlordQ · · Score: 2

    now the studio has to fend off offers from movie studios who want to feature their iconic cars in the game.

    iconic? They're like Twisted Metal-esque penny racers, there's nothing iconic about them.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:What? by Coren22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That sentence took me a few reads to untangle, but I think it is trying to say something like:

      Movie studio wants them to include a batman car in the game.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    2. Re:What? by Winckle · · Score: 2

      It's the other way round. Companies are approaching the devs to include movie cars as DLC.

    3. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I know that reading is hard, but try and comprehend this sentence:

      now the studio has to fend off offers from movie studios who want to feature their iconic cars in the game.

      The game features the cars you described as:

      Twisted Metal-esque penny racers

      And movie studios are trying to get cars from movies to be included in the game. EXAMPLE: The BTTF DeLorean.

    4. Re:What? by OverlordQ · · Score: 1

      Oh, that makes a lot more sense.

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    5. Re:What? by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Last month they added the Back to the Future DeLorean- which is pretty iconic.

    6. Re:What? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      You have it backwards friend. Rocket League cars aren't iconic, but movie studios want to have their cars in the game as DLC. We've already seen the BTTF DeLorean released a couple of weeks ago and from what I can see playing other people a *lot* of people bought it.

      http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/10/12/rocket-league-goes-back-to-the-future/

  4. Rocket what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about a description of what they're talking about?

  5. I love this game. by truck_soccer · · Score: 1

    Rocket League is probably the best "sports" video game that I have ever played.

  6. Cross Platform by truck_soccer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Available on the PS4 for free for a while. Then steam sale was giving it away for %30 percent off. Now they're giving a copy away with steamOS hardware. This game is literally the most fun I've had since I discovered Counter-Strike some 15 years ago.

  7. Please... by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Please don't get bought by Activision.

    1. Re:Please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rocket League 15 with Cars 14 crossover Exclusive Day-One DLC

  8. Fun game that reminded me of whacky 3DO titles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just a pure joy

  9. Mutators add-on by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 4, Informative

    This week they added a new game mode called Mutators and gave it out for free. Not a lot of companies would do that. I bought both cosmetic DLCs that I didn't care about just to give them a few bucks.

    1. Re:Mutators add-on by del_diablo · · Score: 1

      Its also been bundled with the Steam controller. Thats also a lot of free users and PR

    2. Re:Mutators add-on by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Arg... steam hardware STILL not available in my country, and of course on Wednesday they finally enabled local pricing... which means I cannot just pay in dollars and say "Ship me my fucking steam link now ! "

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  10. Obligatory by imadeyoureadpoop · · Score: 1

    What A Save!

    --
    Hanlon's Razor -- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
  11. Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #1/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Apk doesn't think DNS servers are worth running & believes Microsoft Active Directory can run w/out DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM

    Where? I say AD needs internal DNS far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    See "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" there on OpenDNS free (I use it) + AD in my security guide.

    ---

    I'M RIGHT on admin priv + hosts UPDATE (WFP/SFP) & you use it too!

    "figured out why privilege escalation's a bad thing?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM

    How else programmatically update it?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write hosts" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM

    Hypocrite FINALLY later admits it!

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS it or it can't do its job fully like many security tools!

    Guess what?

    Don't NEED TO RUN MY PROGRAM AS ADMIN - I do it here manually vs. auto.

    ---

    "Needing admin privileges every time a program updates is poor design" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM

    Users set it not programmatic impersonation for autoupdate. You design zero & say what's what?

    ---

    "90's technology to fight modern war" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM

    Ozymandias/Watchmen per my namesake:

    "I resolved to use antiquities teachings" (hosts) "to our world today & began my path to conquest - Conquest not of men but of the evils that beset them: Fossil Fuels (antispyware), Oil (antivirus), Nuclear Power (addons) are like a drug & you gentlemen along w/ foreign interests are the pushers"

    It works Aryeh Goretsky NOD32/ESET said hosts = good security-> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

    Oliver Day (Symantec)-> http://www.securityfocus.com/c...

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts' Admin hosts+recommends APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit-> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...

    APK

    P.S.=> Continued in #2/5... apk

  12. Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #2/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Virus scanners/Adblock software don't need admin priv to update" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    AV does to remove threats - Adblock addons = VASTLY INFERIOR in abilities + efficiency vs. hosts as I've proven w/ noone proved me wrong to date!

    ---

    "your software does" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    No, hosts do due to WFP/SFP!

    ---

    "won't reveal your source code" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    I don't owe you it. I don't give away work to be stolen by others so it's misused like GOOGLE CHROME http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...

    ---

    "What's stopping you from pointing my bank's web site at your private server?" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    I don't keep a server. You're a security guru (not - you create no ware for security & your forensics skills = non-existent): Put it in a VM, trace it using process monitor + wireshark to prove it (don't need code) & I only put in hardcodes of fav sites @ top of hosts for speed & reliabilty - you'd spot it easily & bulk of the file is sorted blocked known bad threat origins.

    ---

    "the possibility of being caught, which would be pretty hard to catch w/ such a large hosts file, as no one can go through it manually." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    See just above!

    ---

    "What are you going to do when Windows gets rid of the hosts file completely?" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    Hasn't happened!

    ---

    "They have already taken steps to make it useless in Windows 10." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    It still works there!

    APK

    P.S.=> To be continued in part #3/5... apk

  13. Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #3/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    62 sources of good repute show + /. users say otherwise:

    Proven safe by 57 antivirus programs in its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Same for the 32-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    Per VirScan its installer too -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news... /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

    ---

    You tried using Computer Associates another antivirus I turned over on false positives (1/8 over time) & they were caught in ACCOUNTING SCANDALS FRAUD http://www.bing.com/search?q=c...

    They had to sell of their PC security suite too (full of shit fraud also) LOWERING THE 'threat level' on THAT program (not my hosts file engine) TO ZERO!

    * YOU ARE WRONG ON EVERY ACCOUNT NOTED ABOVE!

    APK

    P.S.=> To be continued in part #4/5... apk

  14. Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #4/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "nowhere in there did you actually say what you are using that isn't a proxy/VPN" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Thursday November 12, 2015 @02:25PM (#50916751)

    I don't use proxies/VPN (or anonymous relays).

    "APK ... uses anonymous relays to get around the limits of posting anonymous" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @10:06AM (#50863109)

    I'm not stupid enough to do what YOU want (make me as stupid as an easily tracked for retrolling sheep like you).

    There's 3-4 ways to do what I do & those? Aren't them in your mistake accusations.

    What I do, like all I do = FAST + EFFICIENT, NO extra "moving parts" - less IS more = GOOD engineering, using what you have natively vs. "Bolting on 'MoAr'" stupidly & illogically.

    You're MCSE, networking admin 'god', & security guru (not) - figure it out, I gave clues - I'm NOT going to tell you!

    All you know is I do it WHEN combatting little scumbags like you that hide behind fake names online trolling me.

    It works, like all I do does with testimonials to that effect no less.

    "it's funny how little you know of security APK" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Thursday November 12, 2015 @02:25PM (#50916751)

    Funny how little you know in computing (no code, especially for security - I have it. You don't)

    (& you're stumped on an anti-troll technique I use too!)

    I've long ago done far more than you will or have in the art & science of computing!

    APK

    P.S.=> To be continued in part #5/5... apk

  15. Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #5/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "but rather than take my advise on various things, he feels that he is allowed to defame me by saying things he knows are not true - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @10:06AM (#50863109)

    Hypocrite, I show you're projecting in my posts. What "advice" can you, an INFERIOR to me, like yourself give?

    "I have offered him advise on ways to improve what he does to reduce the feeling of icky his software - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @10:06AM (#50863109)

    I've shown /.'er saying differently - Show us you've done better) - & you're "advising"? Talking out your ass on things you haven't done is what you're doing.

    "posting them so often that maybe, just maybe, someone will think they are true - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @10:06AM (#50863109)

    Quotes of you are true! You can't keep your word as you're replying to me yet again + projecting what I prove YOU do (AD/DNS lie).

    "I don't have time for the Troll APK, and refuse to respond anymore to a post signed APK" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 03, 2015 @04:27PM (#50858983)

    No troll. I protect users for free w/ a program that speeds them up, helps reliability, & even anonymity online w/ more abilities & efficiency than ANY other 1 solution doing more w/ less - do you? No.

    "Maybe I should change my signature again just to rile him up some more." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 03, 2015 @10:07AM (#50855451) FROM http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    "Rile" me? Childish sig bs is all you've got!

    "I have repeatedly refuted his assertions - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @10:06AM (#50863109)

    BS - See my last 4 posts here!

    APK

    P.S.=>

    "I never admitted you were right" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @04:14PM (#50904323)

    You PROVE IT FOR ME part #1-#5 of your "Greatest Hits Fails"... apk

    1. Re:Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #5/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed some of his posts from earlier in the day. Please make corrections ASAP.

    2. Re:Coren22's "greatest hits" fails #5/5... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nevar stop poasting crazytrain

  16. Love it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They made the right decision when they gave the game for free for PSN plus subscribers. Man I love this game so much..

  17. Linux port by sad_ · · Score: 1

    And they're working on a linux port too!
    https://twitter.com/RocketLeag...^tfw

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  18. Re:Valve's use of it as a Promotion Pre-order bonu by Narishma · · Score: 1

    It was also available for free on PS4 for a month or so.

    --
    Mada mada dane.