Rocket League Servers Overloaded at Launch, Developer Psyonix Studios Working On Fix

This week, developer Psyonix Studios released their multiplayer car-sport game Rocket League to overwhelmingly positive response. Unfortunately, when I say "overwhelmingly," I'm not being hyperbolic. Players on both PC and PS4 have been unable to consistently connect to the game's servers since the title released on July 7th.

A major part of the problem is that the Rocket League is free on PSN this month, causing huge (and apparently unexpected) strain on the game's servers. Because the game features cross-play between PC and PS4, both platforms have been affected. While this might just seem like a slight annoyance for the players who got Rocket League for free, it's a major frustration for PC players who spent $20 on a multiplayer game that doesn't have functional online multiplayer.

Over on Psyonix's Twitter feed, the studio has been giving players updates on the state of the servers. Things seemed to be working well after a fix went through last night, but today the game ran into more issues.

According to Psyonix, a fix for these issues should be released soon, and I'm crossing my fingers that things will stabilize soon. The studio has also said that they have plans to improve the overall multiplayer experience, indicating that they're "looking into" a solution to allow PC and PS4 players to group up in parties instead of only being randomly matched together.

What is Rocket League? Well, it's the sequel to 2008's Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. That doesn't help? Well, okay, think about it this way: It takes a number of qualities from popular sports, subtracts the human athletes, and adds hard hitting, high-flying super cars and a giant, glowing metal ball. The cars slam into each other like football linebackers. Players launch their vehicles up as high as possible to try to knock the ball their way, like a center in a basketball tip-off. There's everything from Australian Rules Football to Polo here.

But more than anything, Rocket League reminds me of all the stuff that I love from soccer: The beautiful cross pass from the side of the field towards a perfectly positioned striker; the way the ball is never really "held," by any player, always bouncing around with a mind of its own; That time when... The score is 2-2 and there is very little time left in the match. The ball hangs in the air above a group of players, and for a moment there is a possibility that anything might happen, and then a body--in this case, a massive truck--moves in a way that a body could not possibly move. No, No way. I do not believe it. And the ball is in the air and then all at once it is in the back of the goal. And in Rocket League the ball explodes into color and flings all of the vehicles nearby away from the goal in a concussive celebration.

It's just... listen, it's pretty fucking good.

And it breaks my heart that I've only been able to play it for a couple of hours with other players. Because while the game does have competent AI players in its offline modes, they don't really replicate the ways humans play. In my multiplayer matches last night, I saw players hesitate when AI would calmly take the shot. I saw a special sort of camaraderie from a teammate who, at the end of a match they'd dominated, very clearly swerved away from an easy goal so that I could take the shot and get the score instead. And I saw one player spend an entire match trying to perfect a technique by which they launch their car into the air before angling downwards and rocket-boosting a dive kick style attack on the ball. That's the sort of nonsense only humans players devote themselves to.

So hey, Psyonix, good luck getting this thing fixed.

Everyone else, I'll see you on the field.

IT'S BRILLIANT WE SHOULD MAKE A GB TOURNAMENT

I'm glad they're working on it. The game seems really cool. I'm a huge fan of fantasy sports games, and I feel like we've had a dearth of them since the PS1 era - maybe even before that.

That said: any word on if having this game on is still going to turn my PS4 into a little black puddle on my floor? Because that game makes that shit hot, like in a vaguely unsettling way. And I mean a fix that's not changing the camera angle on the menu screen, because although that's amusing, I'd rather not have to worry about it.

The hotfix they pushed yesterday fixed the PS4 fan issues.

Game is really great, I've managed to only really have issues on launch day, other times I've tried to play have all been good but it's usually later at night when I finally get a chance to get into it.

Oh good! One thing at a time, I guess. I'm willing to forgive them many grievances, because their game is like mainlining FUN between my toes.

Victim of its own popularity I guess.

Hey I know a fix: HAVE MORE SERVERS.

And better ones.

#knowitall

The only good thing about the servers going down over and over is it gives me a break to go do other things because otherwise I can't stop. Amazing game.

Dammit, @n7, how could you let this happen? Get on it!

Why is this news? free game gets servers overloaded at launch. NO SHIT.

Austin Walker confirmed as the new Giant Bomb Soccer Editor?

They've been working for me.

Really hope they fix this, because the game seems really enjoyable. I still haven't gotten to play online.

I would be so into a GB tournament for this.

I decided to get a refund on Steam. Will get it cheaper when it works. From the one laggy game I was able to play it seemed fun.

I hope they add mod tools so someone can add rockets and new maps.

@johnnymcginley: I'd be so down!

Game is amazing I've been playing late like 2am pacific time and I haven't had any trouble bummer for those who have

@superfriend: time to upgrade!

I've managed to play a bunch of matches the last two nights online. Really an exceptionally fun game.

Haven't even tried online yet because I'm so bad, but my god this game is laced with cocaine or something, it is hard to stop playing.

Success has a price.

I fucking love this game. First day It was out i couldn't get into a server til later that night. Then the next day it was fine. Now its not working again, so this saddens me, but what I've been able to play I've loved. So I'm not mad at the developers, I JUST WANT TO PLAY SO BAD CAUSE ITS SO GOOOOOD

It really is a fantastic game. Gonna have lots of fun with it once everything is smoothed out!

I played this game...offline...last night for a lot longer than I expected to. Totally surprised by it and really loving it.

Glad to see them working on it.

Make the game free on PS+, on the day of release, without any prior network beta. Fucking brilliant. The game is real fun, but holy shit how did they not expect this to happen?

Yesssssss

The servers have been back on for like an hour now and seem to be working great. Just letting anyone know that's not playing right now.

They had multiple betas and alphas with netplay? Though I agree, you submit to your game being free on PS+, you can't ever use the excuse "More players than we expected." No. No no no.

Where is all of the fervor for this game coming from? I mean it's fun, sure, but it isn't that fun..

Love this game so freaking much! I keep playing seasons and trying to get into a MP game every now and then. Ranked games are so much fun and can't wait for the fix to make it all stable

It might actually be one of the best multiplayer games I've ever played. It's insanely, ridiculously fun. Like... the exhibition stuff and seasons are alright, but playing it with teammates and having both teams that are skilled at actual teamplay is like a friggin' ballet. It's intense, supremely skill-based and can be played in quick sessions or for hours.

Just the complete feeling of satisfaction as you bounce the ball to a teammate and back to you and back to them and slamming it into the goal is... unreal. It's pure, unadulterated skill, but also complete silly fun. Even when you're losing it's a total blast.

Though I suppose if your entire team is awful and you're all trying to be strikers then you might find it less fun.

PLEASE tell me y'all are QLing this at some point. I want to see some GBers slamming into each other on the virtual pitch.

The plague of broken ass games continues...

This game is the most fun I've had playing a video game in a long long long long time.

as of an hour after this was published, they seem to have realized what was causing the issue and fixed it.

Yeah I knew this was going to happen once they announce it was free this month on PS+ the Neogaf and Kinda Funny Hype stoked the flames of this game. Plus this game has a pretty outstanding cult following from the Ps3 days. I was always disappointed that the GB crew never spent any significant time with SSARPBC on the Ps3.

I managed to get a few multiplayer games in last night, there's a real flow in that game I have never felt before. I think this is potentially me favorite soccer-like game since Strikers Charged.

I've had some pretty lengthy online sessions, but maybe that's just me being lucky with getting on while the servers were working. When they were, matchmaking was quick and games loaded up fast.

Game's a ton of fun, even just in the single player/season stuff!

I wonder what happened to the rematch option they had in the beta. Now we have to quit out after each game...or am I missing something? I only tried ranked matches....

God this game is so good, and i've heard when people manage to get online it's brilliant, i've been making futile attempts at calming people in the Steam forums but there really are too many people who troll regardless (weird right?).
I only defend it because the developers have been communicating how they're trying to resolve this issue daily, they really care about letting us know which in turn makes me care.

I even wrote my first short game review on Steam about it. I'm like one of them real game journalisms.

I've put in 25 hours into this game since 3am on the 7th & have never failed to get into a game.

All the server downtime seems to be when the Americans can play. My timezone has made me sleep past every problem apparently.

Sucks that GB are probably gonna hold this against the game like no ones been able to play consistently. They should have covered one of the Betas to see how awesome the game is.

Merely played 11 hours of this yesterday. Half of that against bots, other half against other people. Didn't even touch Dota 2 yesterday; yeah, it's that good. Hopefully the server trouble will end as quickly as possible. It's the reason I hesitated buying the game in the first place the first couple of days.

The gameplay is beyond fulfilling in tightness and at its best exhilarating as inhaling after being submerged underwater for eons, while other times just good ol' fun. From the very first time going through the tutorials I saw the potential how someone could use these controls to do some crazy-ass stuff on the field with enough practice. Eventually saw a twitch stream where some guy (with 6 years of experience on the previous game) did some of that crazy-ass stuff. And while I anticipated said crazy-assness I did not expect it to the extent he showcased: eSports galore.

Gotta get back on the field and work on not miss hitting the ball 99% of the time (when rocket boosting as a goalie up the field on a high lob resulting in a goal on own end).

GOTY!

@basketsnake: Rematch is definitely there non-ranked...

I'm sure they'll get it going smoothly. When it's worked it's worked very well. One thing that surprised me a bit about this game was how polished it is, even on PC. I guess usually when I see a concept like this I assume it's some indie studio doing an early access title that will never get released and is full of bugs, but this thing is a gem.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS WITH LANG AND THE GOOCH!