Rocket League dropping support for MacOS and Linux. Refunds offered...kind of

[Arika]

Starting March 2020, Rocket League developer Psyonix will be dropping support for MacOS and Linux intending to only focus on development for Windows, per a recent announcement on their Steam Page.

 

Quote

As we continue to upgrade Rocket League with new technologies, it is no longer viable for us to maintain support for the macOS and Linux (SteamOS) platforms. As a result, the final patch for the macOS and Linux versions of the game will be in March. This update will disable online functionality (such as in-game purchases) for players on macOS and Linux, but offline features including Local Matches, and splitscreen play will still be accessible.

If you purchased Rocket League for Mac or Linux on Steam, the game will still work with full functionality when installed and played on a computer running Windows 7 or newer.
 

https://steamcommunity.com/games/252950/announcements/detail/1709614218556357755

 

so unless you want to play offline against bots or locally with friends, you're shit out of luck unless you move to windows.

 

But hey, at least they are offering refunds, right?

Quote

Refunds for macOS and Linux (SteamOS)

If you have played Rocket League on macOS or Linux you can request a refund through Steam. A refund is available even if you have owned the game for more than 2 weeks or played longer than 2 hours.

Well, yes, but actually no and this is where they are going to land themselves in very hot water

 

they are offering refunds for the BASE Game only, any microtransactions are not being refunded

 

 

The claim for the dropped support is that they are moving to DX11, the current compatibility with MacOS and Linux is relies on DX9.

 

They are saying you can try to run it on Linux through Proton or Wine and Mac through bootcamp

Quote

Players on Mac can try running Rocket League on Windows with Apple's Boot Camp tool. Boot Camp is not something Psyonix officially supports.

 

If you play Rocket League on Linux, you can try Steam's Proton app or Wine. These tools are not officially supported by Psyonix

But since we've also seen anti-cheat software ban people for using Proton, i don't know how keen people will be to attempt it.

 

This is where we run into the catch 22 of Linux gaming. Developers don't want to support it because there's not enough players (Pysonix are claiming 0.3% of players are on linux) and Players wont move to Linux until more games are supported.

 

Personally i think if you're not going to support a platform any longer, and you're offering refunds. refund the entire package, to draw the line at the base game will not leave fans with a warm fuzzy feeling towards you.

 

https://support.rocketleague.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042201433

[nick name]

It's fine.  Linus wasn't very good at the game anyway.  

[TempestCatto]

Well Linus was thinking about retiring. Guess this will throw him over the edge.

[Arika]

57 minutes ago, nick name said:

It's fine.  Linus wasn't very good at the game anyway.  

 

55 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Well Linus was thinking about retiring. Guess this will throw him over the edge.

i dont think i've ever typed linux or linus the right way first time.

 

 

[nick name]

6 minutes ago, Arika S said:

 

i dont think i've ever typed linux or linus the right way first time.

 

 

Oh.  If it's Linux then I have no interest in this story.  

[Bombastinator]

Do people even play rocket league?  Iirc it was an attempt at an esports title but wasn’t picked up by esports or something.  Got a feeling the windows version isn’t far behind.

[Letgomyleghoe]

3 hours ago, Arika S said:

i dont think i've ever typed linux or linus the right way first time.

When I started watching his videos I honestly though it was linux tech tips, in my defense the first few videos I watched were him explaining linux

[mr moose]

I wonder if there are enough Linux players to formally cause a legal complaint in those countries where consumer law is supportive?

 

 

[ARikozuM]

I mean there is this thing called Proton...

And there is this thing called anti-cheat blocking users of Proton from playing... 

So it might be a good idea to unban Proton users. 

[Chunchunmaru_]

Mac OS users can use Boot Camp

 

Linux users can use Windows? 

[jagdtigger]

1 hour ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

Linux users can use Windows? 

Why would we want to use an inferior OS?

[TempestCatto]

9 hours ago, Arika S said:

 

i dont think i've ever typed linux or linus the right way first time.

 

 

It's okay, we knew what you meant. We just had to poke fun. But now we both look like assholes since you changed it P:

[IdlePX]

Pshh. At least we can get a refund. Cements my hate of Epic Store just a little bit more.

[GreatnessRD]

Gaming didn't used to be so hard. It amazes me each day how complicated the industry has made it for me to care. Feel bad for those who've invested a ton a time in a game they can no longer completely enjoy. That's how it goes though.

[Curious Pineapple]

2 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Why would we want to use an inferior OS?

Because your "superior" OS is used by such a tiny percentage of the players that supporting it isn't worth the trouble

[IdlePX]

Update on refunds for macOS and Linux through Steam: 

 

[Chunchunmaru_]

18 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

Because your "superior" OS is used by such a tiny percentage of the players that supporting it isn't worth the trouble

Quantity =\= quality

[Chunchunmaru_]

7 minutes ago, IdlePX said:

Update on refunds for macOS and Linux through Steam: 

 

Tl;Dr they were using a dx9 to opengl translation layer

[Curious Pineapple]

Just now, Chunchunmaru_ said:

Quantity =\= quality

When it comes to software support and development, if most of your users are running DOS on a toaster then that's what you support.

 

Doesn't matter how "superior" another OS is, if your users don't use it then supporting it is costly and possibly making a loss.

[Chunchunmaru_]

10 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

When it comes to software support and development, if most of your users are running DOS on a toaster then that's what you support.

 

Doesn't matter how "superior" another OS is, if your users don't use it then supporting it is costly and possibly making a loss.

Yeah but how is software compatibility related to the quality of the kernel or the architecture?

That was the point there, even if it could run better on older hardware if the game was running on Vulkan than DX11 or anything else that doesn't matter if it doesn't give money return in this case

It just perfectly makes sense even if it's sad that's how it is 

[Curious Pineapple]

2 minutes ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

Yeah but how is software compatibility related to the quality of the kernel or the architecture?

That was the point there, even if it could run better on older hardware if the game was running on Vulkan than DX11 or anything else that doesn't matter if it doesn't give cash

It just perfectly makes sense even if it's sad that's how it is 

I think you missed the point a bit....

[Chunchunmaru_]

5 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

I think you missed the point a bit....

Mind to show it? 

[Curious Pineapple]

1 minute ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

Mind to show it? 

jagdtigger said "Why would we want to use an inferior OS" when it was mentioned that the alternative is to use Windows for the game.

 

I said that it doesnt matter how superior Linux is, if no-one plays it then it isn't worth supporting.

 

By the way, Linux is a better OS is many respects, but is of no use to me so I use Windows.

[Chunchunmaru_]

9 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

jagdtigger said "Why would we want to use an inferior OS" when it was mentioned that the alternative is to use Windows for the game.

 

I said that it doesnt matter how superior Linux is, if no-one plays it then it isn't worth supporting.

 

By the way, Linux is a better OS is many respects, but is of no use to me so I use Windows.

I use Windows too at my home just because I just want to play games when I'm not at work. (At work I'm full Linux)

 

I will consider switching at home until Proton becomes able to support EAC, and I think this is the case

Isn't this game EAC? Then it doesn't have support with wine, but only with native Linux and MacOS versions

 

Anyway considering a translation layer from DX11 to Vulkan or OGL isn't a big deal in 2020, they don't have to rewrite code that much

I think there are still valve toolkits around here to make the transition relatively painless.

 

It's even possible to embeed DXVK without using wine for native steam games, so they would only need to add the native Linux EAC 

[BigDamn]

I've played Rocket League on Linux before and always thought it felt like shit anyways, so this news really isn't that shocking. The refund issues are what I'd expect from Epic Games, so again, not shocking. Overall I think this is good news for Rocket League players if they can actually make switching to DX11 worth it. A fresh coat of pain on this game could be neat.