As one of the biggest success stories of the generation, Rocket League has won over countless players since its debut in 2015, but to forge ahead, changes were needed. Psyonix had previously revealed that the game's randomized rewards for sale would be leaving Rocket League before 2020, and now they've explained in depth the incoming blueprint system that will replace lootboxes.
Rocket League crates will be no more sometime this December, though Psyonix has yet to disclose the exact date. Taking their place, blueprints will behave similarly to crates, with the biggest change being that players will be able to see exactly what they're being offered when a blueprint is dropped in the post-game menu.
Previously, players had a percentage chance to receive a crate. That part was free, but to open it, you'd need to use a key which was sold for $1.49 each, with bundled prices on offer as well as the occasional free keys available through seasonal events and the game's newer Rocket Pass.
Any crates still remaining in players' inventories following the move to blueprints will automatically be converted to blueprints, and any blueprints players have still must be paid for in order to be opened, or "built," as Psyonix calls it. Blueprints will remain unrevealed in your inventory until you choose to reveal it for free. Building them will require Rocket League's new currency, credits, which will arrive with the blueprint update in a few weeks.
Decryptors will also disappear for good, and any remaining in player inventories after the update will be converted into "bonus gifts," which will consist of items from the retired Vindicator crate as well as items from the inaugural Revival blueprint series that contain several fan-favorite items from Rocket League's history.
Removing Psyonix's more directly sanctioned RNG system of the outgoing crates is surely the focus here, as various government bodies, like those in Belgium and The Netherlands, continue to investigate the legality and ethics of systems in video games that often resemble gambling.
With these changes, player-to-player trading has mostly remained untouched, though Psyonix did mention a few exceptions. "Revealed Blueprints and items built from Blueprints will be tradable, as will free drops, and tradable items from your inventory prior to the Blueprint system. However, unrevealed Blueprints will not be tradable. Credits will be tradable," said the studio, "as long as the other party in the trade does not include their own credits."
Rocket League launched on PC and PS4 in July of 2015 to rave reviews, sitting at a Mighty 87 today from 108 critics on OpenCritic. Its day and date appearance in the PS Plus lineup is cited as an early reason for its enormous success. It has since come to Xbox in 2016 and Switch in 2017 before Psyonix was bought by Epic Games in May of 2019.
