When Epic bought Psyonix a while back, the writing was already on the wall. Soon after, Psyonix dropped the Linux and Mac versions of the game, and now, as the game becomes Free to Play, it has finally become what we all feared it would be: an Epic Store exclusive:

Rocket League will release on the Epic Games Store on PC the same time it goes free to play. This version of the game will be identical to the version found on other platforms, and will feature cross-platform play anywhere you play Rocket League, including between the Epic Games Store and Steam.

It’s not exactly the end of the road if you were already playing Rocket League on Steam. You will apparently still be able to continue playing (for how long?), while it won’t be available for new Steam players anymore.

Once Rocket League goes free to play, anyone who already owns Rocket League on any platform (including Steam) will be able to play and enjoy the game with full support for future updates and features. However, the Steam version will no longer be available to download for new players. To put it simply, wherever you play now (including Steam), you’ll still be able to play in the future.

In April 2020, I fantasized that things could go 2 ways once the official support was gone:

1. to include some anti-cheat technology that has no Linux support, 2) to remove Rocket League from Steam altogether and make Rocket League an Epic Games Store exclusive, where Linux support is virtually non-existent apart from setting up your own Lutris client and hoping for the best.

Looks like the second one has come to pass. The sellouts people at Psyonix, after building their success on the shoulders of the Steam community, ended up leaving for a poorer, anti-competitive, Windows-only platform.

Surely that must be what progress looks like.