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

Posted by timothy on from the harrowing-tale dept.

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."

19 of 33 comments (clear)

  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 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.

    2. 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!

  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 OverlordQ · · Score: 1

      Oh, that makes a lot more sense.

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

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

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

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

  5. 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.

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

    Please don't get bought by Activision.

  7. 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 *
  8. Obligatory by imadeyoureadpoop · · Score: 1

    What A Save!

    --
    Hanlon's Razor -- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.