Psyonix, the developer and publisher of Rocket League, recently announced on October 10, 2023, that the game will no longer support player-to-player trading from December 5th onwards. This move has sparked intense backlash from fans of the popular title, with some expressing their frustrations over social media and convincing the developers to reverse the decision.
The decision to end this popular and beloved trading feature was announced by Psyonix on Rocket League’s official website. As per the post made, the feature will be removed on December 5 at 4 PM PST. This was followed by a message from the developers that read:
“We’re making this change to align with Epic’s overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren’t tradable, transferrable, or sellable. This opens up future plans for some Rocket League vehicles to come to other Epic games over time, supporting cross-game ownership.”
A Deep Dive Into The Player-to-player Trading Feature In Rocket League
Player-to-player trading is an online feature in Rocket League that allows players to exchange in-game items with each other. This would be facilitated by enabling the Allow Player-to-player trading setting in the Interface tab of the main menu and sending an invite to another player.
Both parties looking to engage in a transaction would have to enable the feature on their respective accounts and after clicking the Invite to Trade button, players could review each other’s offerings and make the trade by pressing and holding the Accept button.
So far, players have been able to trade several items such as Bonus Gifts and Free post-game drops if they meet a few conditions. The first would be that trading could only be done by players on the same platform. Also, they would have to reach level 30 and above. However, players who started playing the game after the free-to-play update would have to buy 500 credits or the equivalent of in-game currency with real money to be able to make trades with other players.
In addition to the announcement on their website, Psyonix also posted a few other details on the FAQ section that players need to make note of before December 5:
- Duplicate or unwanted items can be traded in for items of higher rarity in Rocket League’s Trade-In System used for core items, blueprints, and tournament items.
- Players who’ve lent items to others will not be able to get them back.
- Players will not lose any previously traded items when the feature is removed on December 5.
Angry fans took to social media to voice their concerns and frustrations over the decision taken by the developers with a Reddit user saying:
“It’s a slap in the face, especially considering that there hasn’t been a significant update to the game in years. They promise big changes, but rather than adding anything they take stuff away.”
Another user chimed in and said:
“Trading is a core feature that everyone uses and nobody asked for it to be taken away.”
Psyonix and Epic Games, who acquired the former in 2019, haven’t publicly responded to the backlash yet.
