With Psyonix announcing that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rocket League will transition to a free-to-play structure of monetization, the initial reaction might be confusion for long-time fans or even casual observers of the game. After all, Rocket League boasts a large player base that haꦫs only gone up over the last year. Its esports scene is also thriving as o🤪ne of the few games to break into mainstream media, recently featured on BBC Sports.
However, a closer look reveal♍s that the꧅ move is brilliant. Transitioning to a new monetization method now is far better than waiting a few years for its numbers to begin to dwindle.
A Healthy Player Base, Better Add Even More Users!
Rocket League released over five years ago on July 7, 2015. Despite being a five-year-old game, it boasts a healthy number of players. At the tim🍃e of writing, the daily to𝓰tal number of players is around 350,000, to the populating tracking network, across all available platforms.
Few other games can claim to have such a powerful draw to its players a full five years after launch while keeping its fundamental 🐠gameplay virtually unchanged. MMORPGs needs an infusion of content every few months to remain relevant, whereas players seem more than content here to dash around a field in their rocket-powered vehicles.
The only downside of a five-year-old game is that it must be difficult to find brand-new consumers willing to pay a premium purchase price for a game that is not exactly “new”. Here is where the opportunity to scoop up a massive number of new players comes in by transitioning to a free-to-play structure. The population of players will get a healthy boost, and since the game is so well made, there is no doubt that man𝓰y will remain for the long-term and spend money in-game.
A Constant Growth In Esports
2020 was supposed to be an important year for the esports growth of Rocket League, but thanks to the pandemic, the goals and objectives planned for game were severely affected, as they have been for virtually every global industry. As a matter of fact, the Intel World Open was set to take place right now, f♎rom July 22-24 as a prelude to the 2020 Olympic Games. Obviously, this was cancelled formally in early April.
Yet by this point in time, the developers were thinking about how to salvage and adapt their esports scene in a way that accommodated the obvious concerns of a pandemic but also rewarded the top teams and would fuel viewer engagement. The answer lay with the cancelling of the Season 9 World Championship and adding its prize pool as additional fundin𝄹g to the Regional Championships. The move was a bit hit with players, fans, and is one more example of how Psyonix works to drive user engagement for the long term.
Tapping Into Mainstream Sports
As the pandemic continued to force the cancellation of events, it soon became clear that sports would be affected as well. Here again Rocket League and other sports-related titles were chosen to be aired on mainstream channels. The Rocket League Spring Series c🌱an be replayed on ESPN and ai🦩red live in early May on BBC Sport.
With Rocket League striving to grow its esports brand even in the midst of a global pandemic, while also making efforts to transition to the world of mainstr𒐪eam sports, opening up the game to new players f♐or free is a sure recipe for success.
Cross-Progression Lets Players Engage Wherever They Want
Although it was mentioned almost as an afterthought towards the end of the announcement, the introduction of cross-progression between platforms will be yet another boon to Rocket League’s player base. Regardle💯ss of thei💎r platform, players will be able to work on their long-term goals and progression and never fear over missing out.
New players will also be arriving into a monetized ecosystem free of the controversial randomized loot boxes. Although the game did feature this monetization structure in the past, Psyonix removed them from the game in December of 2019. Since that time, players have been able to craft the cosmetics they l♋ike usin🀅g a combination of found Blueprints and premium currency called Credits.
For all of these reasons, going free-to-play now is an ideal move for Rocket League. The player base will grow to even greater number than we have seen lately, esports teams will find new fans in these additional users, and the ecosystem is in a healthy place in terms of monetization. The future looks bright for Rocket League, and it will be🤡 great to see where it goes from here.