Rocket League has been one of 2015’s biggest surprises, and it’s paid off handsomely for the game’s developer, Psyonix. A Wall Street Journal profile of the company also revealed they spent just under $3 million developing Rocket League.
Game developers are notoriously tight-lipped about financials (see: the many ways Activision has avoided discussing Destiny sales), so it’s nice to see Psyonix pull back the curtain a bit.
CD Projekt RED has done the same, as well, and it’s refreshing! CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwiński talked to me about this when I interviewed him:
“One of our core values is to be open in communication, both internally and externally, and we do not see any reason why we should not extend it to finances. Yes, we are a publicly traded company, so we have to publish certain financial data, but we have decided to share significantly more than we were obliged to. I do believe it is important to show both the gamers and the industry that by being fair and honest with them.”
Rocket League’s predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, was a bomb. Though it played very similarly to Rocket League, no one bought it.
Per the WSJ story:
It wasn’t clear “Rocket League” would be a success, either. Psyonix spent about two years and a little less than US$2 [approx $2.8 million Australian] million making the game in between doing contract work for larger companies, the studio’s founder and chief, Dave Hagewood, said.
“We paid the bills by working on some of the biggest games in the industry,” such as EA’s “Mass Effect 3” and Microsoft Corp.’s “Gears of War,” the 40-year-old said.
The few who played “Battle-Cars” loved it, Mr. Hagewood said, “so we saw that as a problem of awareness.”
In comparison, Rocket League has “raked in nearly US$50 million in revenue [just over $71 million Australian] and amassed more than 8 million registered players”, WSJ added.
Good on ya, Rocket League.
Comments
10 responses to “Rocket League Has Made Around $70 Million”
Awesome news, they did an amazing job and deserve every bit of success they’re having 🙂
Headline should read: Rocket League Has Made a well deserved $70 Million
By far and away some of the most fun I’ve had in 2015 … and my first proper foray into eSports with a mid-year tournament (we came 3rd, very happy with that outcome).
I’m a console player, and got it in the PlayStation Plus freebies, so I’ve been throwing money at the DLC just to support these guys.
I’ll probably get it on Xbox in February as well, but I’m slightly-more-than-dissapointed that Microsoft can’t make cross platform (with PC) work.
Same, I play SSARPBC on PS3 (didn’t own a PS3 but nagged friends to play constantly).
Bought it on Steam on day 1, bought all DLC… VERY reasonably priced and I know I’ll get more out of it than an AAA title.
Also going to buy it on Xbox One as thats my console of choice at the moment, just love the game inside out and hope it continues to grow.
And still got the XBox version to come. There will be some Ferrari’s in that car park.
Should be game oif the year.
I think they nixed that issue this time around 😛
Rocket League will forever be remembered as fantastic example of the right way to use Playstation Plus (and as a brilliant game!).
Well deserved.
I still haven’t bought/played it despite being interested after angry joes review.
So good to see the big devs proven wrong about their bullshit monetisation tactics. If your game is good and your interaction with the community is fair and forthright, you can make plenty out of a game without chopping it to pieces and charging more and more for less and less content.
These guys and CDProjekt. Champions.
So so many laughs. After a few games you find a solid group of players that suit your style and rematch them again and again. And then it is 3am 🙁