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Rocket League Patches Eye Optimization For Future
There is no denying the insanely robust popularity of Rocket League and the momentum it has built.
It’s popularity, which continuing to climb, is proof of that.
Recent patches have two arenas in the game that featured erratic terrain have been removed, replaced by flat fields.
The development team used social studies to gauge player experience and concluded that the alternate arenas didn’t offer enough strategic differences to offset interfering with player’s muscle memory.
“We didn’t have a strong belief in the future of different layouts given our internal explorations and the mixed success of our ‘Rocket Labs’ arena testing playlist,” Davis said in an email interview with Compete.
“And ultimately we think Rocket League has a lot in common with traditional sports where standards give players and teams the consistency they need to truly master things.”
Players have also noticed a change to car body types. For example, steering and handling are being standardized to fit certain car and represent what that car is expected to do based on it’s build.
“First, our standardization efforts are categorically NOT an attempt to change how a car like Batmobile feels to you” Davis wrote.
“We are not interested in making everything an Octane clone. However, we did want to provide consistency within groups of the most popular vehicles – e.g. Batmobile/Mantis/Twinmill.”
The patches are intended, in part, to create a set of rules for the game as it continues to grow, react to gamer experience and to optimize future car and arena design.
“If this was May 2015 and Rocket League hadn’t released yet I might answer differently [about each car being unique],” wrote Davis.
“But because we’re over two years in and players have become very attached to specific car behaviors like the Batmobile, we aren’t currently interested in trying to take away any of that unique flavor. We’re just trying to bring some of the less used cars into alignment with those favorites.”
Xbox has officially unveiled the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit which is aimed to help creators reduce energy consumption and measure carbon emissions during game development processes.
The Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit includes resources that include:
- Power Monitor tools
- Certification reports
- Power consumption dashboards
- Best practices
Ubisoft and 343 Industries were named as early users of the Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit with 343 Industries able to reduce energy use by 15% without impacting the player experience at all.
Ubisoft and Xbox are co-developing an energy-efficient eco-mode for users.
You can check out the full report right here.
Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.
According to the data:
The numbers
- Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
- Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
- Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
- Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)
- Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
- Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
- Free games claimed: 700 million
- Number of new PC releases: 626
- Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)
Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.
Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.
Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”
A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.
While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.
It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.
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