Player-to-player trading removed from Rocket League, sparking uproar

pcgamesn.com:

Rocket League is one of the best games of all time. That’s a statement I feel pretty strongly about, and have only continued to believe in eight years after it launched. Yet the Rocket League community is in turmoil right now as publisher Epic Games and developer Psyonix announce the removal of player-to-player trading in the car football game, leading to a plummeting Steam reviews rating and a 10,000-strong player petition calling for its return.

In a post to the game’s website, Psyonix announces the removal of Rocket League player trading in December. “Player-to-player trading will be removed from Rocket League on December 5 at 4pm PST,” it says (that’s 7pm EST, or December 6 at 12am GMT). Trading was introduced to the breakout automotive sports game in September 2016, allowing players to swap items with one another through an in-game trade tool.

As for why it’s suddenly dropping a long-standing system, Psyonix explains, “We’re making this change to align with Epic’s overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren’t tradable, transferable, or sellable.” Psyonix was acquired by Epic Games in May 2019. The team adds, “This opens up future plans for some Rocket League vehicles to come to other Epic games over time, supporting cross-game ownership.”

Rocket League cars have previously already made an appearance in Epic’s Fortnite, but this statement suggests that perhaps your owned cars might be usable in other future games. While that’s an interesting idea, the suggestion that a long-term feature was removed because Epic’s other games don’t include it has sparked some controversy.

Personally, I’ll be quietly glad to see trading gone – I already like my car customizations and don’t have a big