
Epic Games will effectively pull the plug on Fortnite racer Rocket Racing, which was developed by Rocket League maker Psyonix. Less than a year ago, alongside the launch of the free-to-play giant’s fifth chapter, the developer announced a trio of new experiences for the Battle Royale, including the Minecraft-esque LEGO Fortnite and Guitar Hero-inspired Fortnite Festival, transforming the title into its own platform.
But its arcade racer is out of gas – or at least running dangerously low on it. A Reddit update from the development team attempts to disguise the details, but it admits that it will “say goodbye” to themed updates, such as the current Inferno Island. This, to us, suggests there’ll be no new official tracks for the mode, effectively sunsetting it.
Here’s what the post adds: “New tracks from creators are releasing every day so racers always have a different place to drift, flip, and fly. There’s no end to the starting lines you can discover.” So, it sounds like it’ll be relying on community created content moving forwards.
Rocket Racing has always been the least played of Fortnite’s new modes, so we’re not enormously surprised, but it’s somewhat concerning to see Epic Games’ ambitions squashed this early. While we like the arcade racer’s gameplay, we always felt a more simplistic Mario Kart knock-off would have had better success; this game always felt a little too complicated for its own good.
An interesting thing to point out here is the racer arguably had the most expensive microtransactions in Fortnite overall, with many of its vehicles costing a fortune – to the point where Epic Games had to adjust the pricing post-release. Rocket League fans also blame the existence of Rocket Racing and its integration into Fortnite for the removal of that game’s trading system.
It’s worth stressing you will still be able to play Rocket Racing, but it looks like it’s reached the end of the road in terms of meaningful developer support. Of course, this is nothing new for Fortnite: fans of Save the World have been in a similar situation for years, as the mode still exists without any meaningful updates or content.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 32
While I do like the mode, in hindsight I think they ***** up by not making Mario Kart. The controls and systems in Rocket Racing are quite convoluted, and I imagine that put a lot of people off, who needed to be grabbed immediately.
Also, if they'd done Mario Kart you'd be able to more easily see your avatar, although I guess it might have been harder to sell the cars.
Anyway, I think there's still potential for a racer in Fortnite and I hope they don't completely abandon the idea. I do wonder if the "platform" approach isn't doing what they wanted, though.
Fifth chapter*
@SintasSays Thanks, fixed!
I never tried this because I'm not installing Fortnite :shrug: Same with Festival, and I love Harmonix. I just don't want to engage with the platform at all.
@RudeAnimat0r Can I ask why? Especially if you enjoy Harmonix's games, why wouldn't you at least want to give Festival a try?
@RudeAnimat0r I don't understand why they didn't just have it that the Festival dlc tracks work in RB4. Bet it'd be little work and it would keep the game alive for those not interested in Fortnite. Not that I expect epic to care about that I guess.
@BlaizeV I imagine that would come with a lot of licensing headaches. Music licensing is tricky enough as it is.
@get2sammyb Well the first reason is Fortnite (checks PS Store) requires 96gb on space. I have a stock hard disk and don't want to tie up that much space. Second, I'm not interested in live service at all - I get these new games are distinct of Fortnite, but they're still designed to be engaged with longterm. Last, I think the other thing about Festival is I don't have instruments, I don't have a gaggle of close by late 20-something friends to play with in the same room anymore either. I loved that Rock Band experience years ago, and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm in a place in my life to have that experience anymore, easily.
Also, I'll take Amplitude over Rock Band too
@RudeAnimat0r any game that attempts to demand as much time as Fortnite does is an immediate no go for me. Since it made the move from GaaS to GaaP it further assured I would never download it. Absolute bummer that’s the rise of GaaS… whose sole purpose is to eat your time and slowly drain money from you over the years has coincided with a downturn in profitability of single player experiences. Yes, there are still single player success stories, but GaaS/GaaP has lead to a seismic shift in how much of the audience consumes games and I stand by the belief that $70 up front is less predatory a business practice than “free to play.”
My friends and I are big Rocket League fans and we really didn’t like what Rocket Racing was offering. At first we thought it would be a Mario Kart-like experience, but as soon as we completed the first track we knew this game mode was not for us. As stated in the article, it felt too complicated for nothing, and far from the fun you can have as a team in a Rocket League game. And as none of us are Fortnite players, we uninstalled the package immediatlely and never went back to it.
Fortnite launcher is utter garbage. It seems that every multiplayer screen nowadays looks like this.
Information/ ads/ graphics overload. Uninstall games at first sight of them.
After the “platform” launched, I downloaded Fortnite for the first time in year. Got my fill of the games in basically one session. The microtransaction model just sort of feels gross if you’re used to buying games instead. It makes you think, “Is that skin worth it? Is that car worth it? Is that song worth it?” And it usually feels like, “No, just price out a game and give me a complete experience.” I’m glad others are apparently feeling that way to some extent, at least with one portion of the platform.
A shame Rocket League had to suffer for Fortnite, by the way.
Why couldnt this just be added to Rocket League ?
I worry that Festival is next, player counts for that mode are often quite low and the crossovers with big artists can't be cheap. It's a shame because the mode has SO much potential.
@get2sammyb As a lifelong (and long time!) gamer, I have to say, I have a real hatred for Fortnite and its popularity. I hate seeing it in the top 10 all the time, I hate that it takes away from so many other great games that (I believe) deserve more attention, and I hate how the popularity of it has had a wider effect on today's market, and the things people push towards. I'm also not a fan of the aesthetics of it. I'll admit, having the option to make your own levels, or the weird unreal engine creator tools seem impressive, but... I've seen what it does to people/kids, and I am not a fan.
@J2theEzzo I was the same, my son plays it and to be honest the battle royale no build mode is alot of fun.
My son is 9 and English is his second language, there are hardly any games translated into my native language so any games with alot of reading are a no go for him. Alot of games from Sony are not kid friendly, he played and loved Astrobot but that game is over in 25 hours. When is the next kid friendly platformer coming, 3 years time? Fortnite is updated regularly, there are custom game modes for almost anything it's not hard to see why kids love it and in it's defense it is a fluid, well built game.
I hope when he is older and has a better handle on the English Language I can broaden his horizons, but he is the next generation and to be honest it's one of the better options for them, at least he's not playing Roblox.
@J2theEzzo Maybe all those people wouldn't play games at all if they didn't play Fortnite. Or maybe those people will use it as a gateway to other games.
There's nothing wrong with something being popular and successful. We should celebrate the fact that lots of people are playing games.
@Jrs1 Cause epic wants everyone playing fortnite. Just their business strategy. I'm surprised they didn't move rocket League and fall guys into fortnite to be honest. Nice profile pic by the way😁
@get2sammyb I think there is something wrong when games with all the love and attention don’t get a look in because of these colossus’s. Personally I think they are bad for the industry
Would say I didn't see this coming except I did last December when all of this was new. I'll give Epic credit, it lasted about 4 months longer than I thought it would, and Festival is still going. And I've changed my mind on Lego, that doesn't' seem to be going anywhere, Disney is probably pumping some of their $1.5B investment into it, kind friendly for Star Wars and Marvel.
In case you forgot our little convo @get2sammyb comments 5, 8 & 9.
https://www.pushsquare.com/features/hands-on-fortnite-festival-rekindles-fond-memories-of-a-forgotten-psp-favourite
@Mikey856 Which games do you believe aren't getting a look in?
I was so incredibly pissed off when I downloaded the seemingly stand-alone release in the shop just to suddenly have Fortnite permanently added to my account. This is such a no-go to do without making it clear on the store entry.
Still would love to have it as a stand-alone release with 2gb size.
I like it but it’s too repetitive. Once you’ve done a few races it’s kinda boring. I do come back to it every now and again though.
I found Rocket Racing very janky and not comparable to how smooth Rocker League handles. It's not worth downloading Fortnite for. Fortnite Lego was also very janky.
@get2sammyb games like Rebirth ain’t setting the world alight with sales and its ten times the game Fortnite is . Or concrete genie on PS4 also a beautiful unique game that bombed can’t help but think these live service games are sapping all the younger gamers up
Downloaded Fortnite for this but couldn't really get into it.
One problem is the launcher or interface or whatever makes me straight up feel like an elderly old man being handed an iPhone for the first time. Just too much going on and idk wtf I'm looking at.
Additionally, as regards rocket racing, like, why am I learning all these buttons just to steer? Way too convoluted. Went through the tutorial and knew immediately this wasn't for me.
The LEGO game isn't bad though. Also a bit more complicated than it needs to be but I'm probably forgetting how much I had to learn going into Minecraft back in the day that seems second nature now.
Do you guys remember the arcade racer Blur? Now that was a good MarioKart-like! Would love to see a sequel or remake of that at some point, although I fear it wasn't popular enough for that to ever happen.
@tpepper1985 Yeah, I can understand and appreciate that. It's good also, that a 'free to play' game has that longevity, so mkst kids don't feel peer pressure to be buying pricey new games all the time.
Like you, I just think/wish that there were more alternatives available, rather than the space being dominated by fewer titles- but it's hard when the space also already feels quite over saturated!
@get2sammyb Admittedly, I'm being somewhat willfully egregious... 😏 I'm just a fan of healthy competition (and tend to be immediately put off by things that are 'popular', and I think it's a shame that creative hubs like Dreams get shut down, but such a big player like Fortnite gets regular success. Clearly, it does what it does well, but I don't think there was any such phenomena like it when I was growing up, so I'm a little wary!
I try other stuff inside Fortnite here and there but they never hook me like Zero Build Battle Royale.
@J2theEzzo Don't get me wrong though I prefer the old model of doing things. I'm not a fan of FTP, most of them are horrible, predatory games where the entire game is designed to around the shop first. The Gacha games, and games with PTW like the hellscape that is mobile. If that stuff ever becomes the norm on console I'm out. I was an avid Diablo player but D4 is the last one I buy, they have totally soured me with their cash shop antics in a full priced game. By the way, want to continue the story? Pay another €50, we'll refresh the cash shop with a load of new cool armour you can buy while you are at it. So sick of companies like Blizzard taking the piss.
I guess that's why I give Fortnite a break, it's free, the battlepass has enough coins to buy the next battle pass, there's no pay to win, and it's a well designed game and the content updates / expansions are free. If you are going to do free to play this is how you should do it.
@J2theEzzo It's better to feel peer pressure with "microtransactions" with the older games I charished the games way more. That this constant nagging of timers and bloody timed garbage.
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