Rocket League Heading to China in New F2P Partnership Between Psyonix and Tencent

Ryan Meitzler April 21, 2017 11:47 AM EST

Psyonix and Tencent have established a new partnership to bring the title over to China in a new free-to-play format for a wider audience.

Since its debut in 2015, Psyonix’s indie breakout hit Rocket League has become a sensation around the world, with the game setting its sights on heading over to China thanks to a new partnership with Tencent that will bring the game to millions of new potential players.

Developer Psyonix has announced in a new blog post that the company is partnering with Tencent Games to bring Rocket League to Chinese players on PC in a new distribution deal that will provide the title as a free-to-play experience to Chinese audiences.

Specifically, Psyonix detailed that changes to the Chinese version of Rocket League will be implemented “to better suit the expectations of that community,” and though the core gameplay experience will be unchanged, the framework around the game will change to be “a new streamlined free-to-play” system. However, Psyonix assured that the new systems around the game will not follow a “pay-to-win” strategy and will instead be true to the “community first” attitude of the title.

Psyonix also explained that while new players in China will no longer be able to purchase the existing Steam version of the game in that region, existing players on Steam will “still have access to the game” they paid for, along with all of the other currently-available features and content.

Rocket League is available now for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux.