Developer Psyonix has announced the removal of bartering between players in Rocket League. This decision is met with great horror in the community.
From 6 December, there will be a far-reaching innovation in Rocket League. Thus, developer Psyonix has decided to abolish bartering between players. “We are making this change to bring Rocket League’s gameplay in line with Epic’s general approach to cosmetic in-game items and the Item Shop’s policies, where items cannot be traded, transferred, or sold,” an official statement explains.
This, it said, “clears the way for future plans whereby some vehicles from Rocket League will appear in other Epic games over time and support ownership across multiple games”. In an FAQ, Psyonix explained that “trade-in duplicates or unwanted items” can still be traded in, but for “random new items of higher rarity”. In addition, “websites or servers” that advertise bartering between players will henceforth be classified as “fraudulent.”
“The biggest disappointment” – game loses its sub-genre
Under the announcement on various social media platforms, criticism hailed from the community. “This is the worst decision that could have been made,” wrote “Conitbeatz” on Reddit. An explanation followed from “spark-c”: “I feel like Rocket League is a game where cosmetic items actually enhance the gameplay experience a bit more than other games. It’s nice to be able to give never-used items to a friend so they can have more fun.” The fact that this is no longer possible in the future “is the biggest disappointment” for him.
Another theme is that trading is a kind of sub-genre of the game. There are “active traders who have spent years building up their stocks”, writes “DoughnutSignificant9”. A petition has already been started to make the developer rethink. Whether this and the wave of criticism can achieve the aforementioned goal, however, is doubtful. After all, Psyonix has belonged to Epic Games since 2019, which makes it unrealistic for the developer to go against the conditions of the parent company.
