It all began with a tweet on the 20th of August 2021, when someone noticed a small detail mentioned in a job posting by Epic Games which talked about the Rocket League’s move to UE5.Obviously, this news went viral within hours and fans could barely contain their excitement. So what happened after that? And now with nearly 2 years having gone by without an official announcement from either Epic Games or Psyonix, where do we stand w.r.t. the UE5 update?No one knows.Source: TwitterHowever, a lack of updates does not mean a lack of progress. So, in order to keep that undying hype inside of you alive, here are the juiciest bits of speculations, leaks, and fan theories (call it what you may) organized in a neat timeline of events starting from the most recent on top.
An anonymous Sound Designer, joined Epic Games in February to work on Rocket League. In a social media post, the intern hinted that he was excited to be working on something that feels “unreal”.“Feels very UNREAL”, the hint couldn’t be clearerIt could be argued that Rocket League UE5 is not just under development but almost nearing completion, given that sound design is usually brought in late in the game creation process.This gave fans on Reddit enough reason to think it’s possible that an announcement about Rocket League’s UE5 update might be made during the upcoming World Championship event that will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany from August 3 to 13.Source: Reddit Post
Octane’s Unreal Engine 5 Debut in Fortnite
The November 2022 Fortnite update featured the Octane Import Body from Rocket League.A glimpse of UE5 Octane in FortniteIn the Fortnite Battle Royale v22.40 update, Octane made an exciting entrance with many features similar to Rocket League like rocket boost, supersonic speed, and the ability to perform jumps, double jumps, dodges, flying, and even driving on walls.This was an important moment for the fans of Rocket League, as this became the first time we saw a Rocket League vehicle in Fortnite’s creative mode, which is powered by Unreal Engine 5.Regular updates to Fortnite’s creative mode are not uncommon, but this is was can be deemed particularly significant for Rocket League’s UE5 journey.Source: Fortnite News
Could UE5 Cars possibly look this good?
A few years ago, Capacity Studios the team behind Hype Chamber, began brainstorming with colleagues from Epic, pondering the potential of Unreal Engine for broadcast and motion graphics.Jäger 619 inside Hype Chamber built on Unreal EngineLater, when Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) needed a major production boost and Epic Games aimed to create a sample project demonstrating Unreal Engine’s capabilities, is when it all clicked into place and Hype Chamber was born.Hype Chamber is a virtual space imagined to be within the arena. It serves as a hub for showcasing matchups, highlighting teams, announcing winners, and overall, intensifying the excitement for the weekly RLCS games. Over time, with support from Epic Games, it was transformed into a comprehensive broadcast package built in Unreal Engine.If you’ve watched live RLCS streams on Twitch then you must have seen witnessed the beauty of Hype Chamber already. Everyone knows that Hype Chamber was designed specifically for the purpose of live event broadcasts.However, you can’t blame Rocket League fans for wondering if Rocket League in UE5 can look similar, especially after seeing how good these cars look during those RLCS live stream broadcast breaks.Source: Capacity Studios
Corey shares details about the move to UE5
In October 2021, Corey, a staff member at Psyonix, shed more light on their plan to transition to Unreal Engine 5. He said they’ve been considering the move for a while, but the team was relatively small.When asked about the specifics of the upgrade and the timeline, Corey shared that it’s too early to discuss precise dates. However, he said that they hope to start testing the new version by next year (this didn’t happen).He elaborated that a full-scale rebuild of Rocket League could be necessary, and to ensure it feels right, feedback from both regular players and professionals will also be crucial.u/Psyonix_Corey shares details of UE5 update on RedditHe further explained that their aim is for Unreal Engine 5 to completely replace the existing version of Rocket League, but whether that will happen through a brand new application or a substantial update to the current game was uncertain due to numerous dependencies and platform-specific details back then.Source: Reddit Comment
Staff banter about UE5 move on Reddit
Earlier that year in August of 2021, a few hours after the first post of Rocket League’s move to UE5 blew up, another staff member who goes by the username u/Psyonix_Ted posted a light-hearted comment on a thread discussing the same things. The comment neither confirms nor denies anything about UE5.Source: Reddit
The tweet that started the storm
In August 2021, a Rocket League player who goes by the handle @RyanGoldfish shared the screenshot of a job posting for a Marketing Copywriter at Epic Games. The job details, clearly mentioned Rocket League’s planned move to UE5.The Job Posting that started it allSoon, the tweet was shared on Reddit. As the news spread, fans obviously went crazy with excitement. What’s more, as if the hype was not enough already, Devin Connors who is a Psyonix staff memberleft a comment in that very thread confirming Rocket League’s move from UE3 to UE5.This was the first-ever confirmation of Rocket League’s transition to Unreal Engine 5 and that the developers are actively working on this upgrade. Players on Reddit were elated with joy and expressed gratitude toward the developers for their honesty and transparency.Source: Ryan’s TweetAnd that’s it. That is all that we know about Rocket League’s upcoming Unreal Engine 5 update laid out.Considering it took Epic Games about 8-9 months to transition Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5, one could wonder if Rocket League’s update is still 9 months out. But then, with two years having passed since the first job posting leak, an announcement could also be imminent.However, only Epic Games and Psynoix know for sure.In the meantime, we’ll keep this post updated with any future developments on Rocket League & UE5 so don’t forget to bookmark us and check back in a few weeks. You never know 🙂
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