Epic’s Decision to Disable Rocket League Trading Leaves Site Founder Without a Job

The removal of Rocket League’s trading feature spells the end for player trading sites like Rocket League Garage.

Epic Games’ announcement to turn off Rocket League’s player-to-player trading system in December has repercussions beyond players looking to make a trade. While for some, this decision may result in mild disappointment due to less frequent use of the feature, for Laurids “Vicegold” Düllmann, a Berlin-based designer and one of the founders of Rocket League Garage, it means losing his livelihood.

Vicegold is not employed by Rocket League developer Psyonix or its owner, Epic Games. He is one of the creators of Rocket League Garage, a widely used website primarily facilitating trade coordination among Rocket League players. The site generates revenue from banner ads and a premium subscription option and has been Vicegold’s sole source of income for the past five years, employing two other individuals. Psyonix has maintained a cooperative and communicative relationship with Vicegold and Rocket League Garage, granting him access to the game’s API to enhance the site’s functionality.

Rocket League Garage initially emerged as a platform for sharing extra alpha testing codes among the alpha testers, many of whom were the first users of the site. As the trading system was introduced in 2016, the website gained immense popularity. Although the site offers various features beyond listing trade offers, such as access to leaderboards and a cosmetic preview tool, Vicegold revealed that approximately 90% of its traffic is related to trading. In a post on Rocket League Garage, he straightforwardly declared, “We lost our jobs today.”

Epic Games has not provided detailed explanations for its decision to deactivate player trading in Rocket League, nor has it justified the application of its item trading policy to the game. The announcement merely states that this change aligns Rocket League with “Epic’s overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren’t tradable, transferrable, or sellable.” Additionally, it opens the door for Rocket League vehicles to appear in other Epic games over time, supporting cross-game ownership.

Vicegold regards this decision as short-sighted, even though he acknowledges Epic’s right to make it. He believes that traders, who are the most dedicated and passionate players about in-game items, are also the ones who invest the most money in the game. Hence, he thinks the decision may unintentionally affect the very players who contribute significantly to the game’s revenue.

Vicegold still intends to release new features on Rocket League Garage unrelated to trading, but he plans to seek an alternative source of income as a product designer, emphasizing that he will avoid building a product contingent on the decisions of another company in the future.

This experience serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the risks of creating products reliant on third-party decisions. Developers like Valve and Epic Games may appreciate products based on their platforms, as long as they comply with company policies and formal relationships are established.