Intro
A while ago a wrote about how awesome Rocket League is as a game. And while I still support that rating, I find I must mention the ridiculous prices Psyonix charges for anything that’s not free.
Nowadays, it’s only normal for free to play games to have an in-game shop where players can buy stuff for real-world money so it’s no surprise Rocket League also has one. After all, the developers need to get paid.
In-game shop
Some games provide items in their shop which impact the way you play the game, like experience boosts and extra resources. These are the worst as they actually give paying players an advantage over non-paying players. Luckily, Rocket League does not offer such items. Everything you buy is purely cosmetic and does not impact the way you play. Buying a new car does not make you play better. It just looks better (I hope. Why would you buy it, otherwise?).
On paper, it sounds all right. You get to play the game for free and if you want to make it look better, you can spend some real-world money on it. It’s all optional, what’s there to complain about? Well, why does it have to be so freaking expensive?!
Formula 1
I’m a big fan of Formula 1 so I really liked the idea of driving an F1 car in Rocket League. I just want one car (the Red Bull, go Max!) and I would happily pay a few euros for it. But no! You have to buy the whole bundle with all 10 cars + wheels. Wheels? Yes, wheels! You must buy the wheels separately. And even then you’re not sure they won’t explode randomly during a race.
Credits
However, I’m big enough of an F1 fan to buy the whole bundle for a few extra euros. A FEW, not freaking 20! Or actually, it is 2000 credits, because in the Rocket League shop, you pay with credits. Those credits can only be bought with real-world money. And can you buy 2000 credits? No! It’s either 500, 1100, 3000 or 6500. So to buy the F1 bundle for 20 euros, you must buy 4x 500 credits or 2x 1100. Or 1x 3000, but that’ll cost you 25 euros.
I can buy a whole game for 20 euros! In Rocket League, you only have one car (with 10 liveries and a set of wheels). Last week, the McLaren was available in the item shop. Another cool car I would like to have. But not for 20 euros!
Rocket Pass
There’s one other way to acquire credits: buy a Rocket Pass. Of course, you first have to buy credits to be able to buy the Rocket Pass. This pass unlocks rewards for gaining a certain amount of experience points or other goals like scoring a given amount of goals. Most rewards are cosmetic items, but some “tiers” (the more XP, the higher the tier) reward you with credits. The catch with Rocket Pass is that it’s time-limited. A pass is valid for one season. When the season ends, you need to buy a new pass. Clever, right?
Conclusion
To summarize: I don’t mind Psyonix offers paid content in a free game, but maybe they could make the prices more reasonable. Unfortunately, some people are willing to pay Psyonix’s prices so the chance of a reduction in these prices is rather slim. And I don’t think the argument “you don’t HAVE to buy things” is valid here because I want to! I would really like to drive Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in Rocket League. But just not at all costs.
