After the recent September update, Rocket League now requires you to have an Epic Games account when you're playing it on Steam. If you don't have one, it'll prompt you to create one before you can play, provided you're online.
What does this mean for Rocket League on Steam?
The new prompt will appear as soon as you load up Rocket League if you're playing with an internet connection. It'll ask you to link your Epic Games Store account with the game and will also offer to add your Steam friends as Epic friends so you can party up. There's no way of getting out of these messages unless you do what Rocket League is telling you to do or close the game (only available via task manager, as Alt-f4 will not work); you won't be able to change options or switch music until you've gone through this step. This also means that if you're connected to the internet, you can't play single-player or local multiplayer before dealing with the Epic prompt.
The confirmation process also doesn't take place entirely within the game. When you're entering your Epic credentials, you'll be taken to a browser window instead. The same goes for creating a new account if you don't already have one. It seems like creating a new account doesn't necessarily mean making a full-blooded Epic profile; rather, it's a sort of proxy account with minimal information required.
Also worth noting here is the fact that Rocket League isn't requiring you to actually download and install the Epic Games launcher; rather, it simply requires account credentials. If you want more information about how Epic integration works with Rocket League, check out Psyonix's blog post on the subject.
What else is new in Rocket League?
After yesterday's patch, a number of additional changes have been made in Rocket League. There's a small tutorial teaching you the ropes when you boot the game up now. If you're a Switch player, you won't require Nintendo Switch Online to play Rocket League. A number of new menu and UI changes have been implemented, and there's also a new vehicle preset based on the Merc car. You can check out the full patch notes right here via Steam if you're interested.
How do you feel about Rocket League needing an Epic account? Let us know in the comments below!
