The popular vehicular soccer game is staging its first ever Halloween event, which will last from October 16 until November 6. "Rocket League" is set to reward players with a new type of currency - Candy Corn - which can be used to open holiday-themed crates over the upcoming three weeks.
While loot boxes have hardly received the best press over the last few months, a company like Psyonix does not seem too hesitant to incorporate their own version of the reward system into their games.
Non-tradeable
While the normal gear received via crates can be traded on the market, "Rocket League" will not allow Halloween themed content to be traded between players.
This is done to avoid a situation where certain people would stock up on popular items and then overcharge players to buy them. As this content cannot be traded, what a player receives is what they will be forced to keep.
It is easy to be cynical and criticize Psyonix for jumping on a recent toxic trend, but these type of events are crucial for a long-running multiplayer game to have sustainability. Eventually, players are going to get tired of the same old thing, so throwing in some temporary special items is a fine way to keep the fan base coming back for more.
The Candy Corn currency only lasts until a week after the end of the Halloween event, so players need to use or lose them.
A retrospective
"Rocket League" continues to go strong. It is incredible what such a simple and, honestly, the absurd game managed to accomplish since it was originally released back in 2015. Most people probably do not know that the popular multiplayer title was a sequel to "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars" for the PlayStation 3.
While its predecessor failed to make much of an impact, "Rocket League" blew past expectations.
Psyonix's vehicular sports game has proven so popular that it continues to be released on newer consoles like the Nintendo Switch. Critics also gave it a warm reception, with the PlayStation 4 version sitting at an aggregate score of 85 on Metacritic.
Steam has an average player count for the last month at over 30 thousand, which is a phenomenal return for an MMO which is hardly new. More importantly, "Rocket League" is actually on an upward trajectory, as 2017 has consistently seen more active players than the previous year.
Some might argue that loot boxes are addictive, but we doubt that is the reason why people love playing "Rocket League" so much. The gameplay itself is addictive.
