Yesterday, Epic Games made the surprise announcement that it hasacquiredRocket Leaguedeveloper Psyonix. The move didn’t go down well with all fans of the vehicle based sports game, andRocket Leagueis now being review bombed on Steam.
The histogram on theRocket LeagueSteam page confirms that just over 2,000 negative reviews for the game have been published in just two days. 572 of these reviews were posted on May 1, with another 1,492 being posted on May 2. Most of these negative reviews mention the announcement of the Epic Games acquisition.
One of these negative reviews, posted on May 1, says, “When you have to buy the entire studio to get them to put their game on your store.” 449 Steam users have said that they found the review funny, while 3,286 said that they found it helpful. The review is at the top of the list of the “most helpful reviews” posted in the last 30 days, and so is the first review that most players will read.
Another review, posted by aRocket Leagueplayer who has 1,116.5 hours on the game, posted, “Just here to pay my respects, GoodbyeRocket League, you will be missed and you were taken from this world too soon. Rest In Piece [sic].” A player with 287.6 hours wrote, “You did it Psyonix, you showed us money is the only thing that matters, so wholesome”, and a player with 687.9 hours just wrote “ePiC gAmEs”.
While some of the reviews have been posted just because they aren’t a fan ofEpic Games Store exclusivity deals, some say that they have posted these reviews out of fear thatRocket Leaguewill not get any more updates. Several reviews say that they expect the game to be removed from sale on Steam and this means that Steam owners game won’t get new DLC.
Epic Games has issued a statement on the rumors that it is going to remove the game from Steam or that Steam players won’t getnew content forRocket League. The company has said that it hasn’t announced anything about that yet, but there are fans who aren’t aware of this, or don’t trust Epic Games to leave the game on Steam.
This isn’t the first time that a game has been review bombed over its partnership with Epic Games.Metro Exoduswas also review bombedfor being sold on the Epic Games Store. However, with better potential revenue and greater development funds, this may be an acceptable trade for Psyonix and other studios like it.
Rocket Leagueis available for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
