“It’s been a fantastic few years,” says Jeremy Dunham, vice president of publishing at Psyonix, speaking to Eurogamer.co.uk, “Every studio faces challenges regardless of success. Our biggest one was growing the studio at the same rate as the game. We wouldn’t trade the last 31 months for anything in the world.”

They proved to themselves and the industry, along with other games like Minecraft and Terraria, that indie games have the potential to be just as big as titles from larger triple-A studios. And for a fraction of the cost. Dunham is proud that Psyonix has achieved all this without forgetting the importance of community feedback and time.

The original plan was to make Rocket League a free-to-play title. For mostly financial reasons, the developers decided against it in the end. Another factor was the high risks involved.

“There are heaps of free-to-play games out there with a low conversion rate. At the time, we were a company that was relatively (if not completely) unknown among gamers. And we had a rather unusual game concept. Trying to pay the bills and keep developing games is about putting yourself in the best possible position to succeed. Going for a premium price gave us the opportunity to recoup our costs without the game being a massive hit,” he says.

“It was definitely the right decision. As a free game, it wouldn’t have gotten that attention through PS Plus, and there wouldn’t be record-breaking download numbers to get a game that had the normal purchase price the following month. It developed momentum from the beginning. We opened a lot of people’s eyes and were more than ‘just another free-to-play game on the market’.”

A free-to-play title Rocket League is not, but lootboxes have existed in the game for some time. Last year, DICE and EA caused quite a stir with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 because the contents of their lootboxes affected character progression and gameplay. A mistake that Psyonix avoids.

“Our view is that they should be exclusively cosmetic. must, as long as you integrate them. We said from the beginning that we don’t sell perks in Rocket League, and we stand by that. On top of that, we gave our players the ability to trade items with each other or with the AI if they want to collect those things that way. Another big thing is that there is the ability to disable crates. We are aware that some people don’t like this lootbox concept. Instead of forcing it on them, we’re respecting their view and letting them turn it off completely if that’s what they want,” Dunham explains.

Psyonix is looking at other ways to improve monetization, according to him. The developers see the game as a “real sport,” so selling gameplay benefits is out of the question, he says. “Some people thought we were crazy when we didn’t charge for it with the introduction of new arenas in 2015. Today they better understand what was we were trying to do then and still do today.”

As Psyonix announced last, the team is changing its update schedule. The creators made this decision out of necessity. Dunham explains that Psyonix regularly develops many new features and content for Rocket League. By cramming many new things into each major update, the developers create bottlenecks and dependencies.

This year, they want to release updates more regularly and declutter them. If a feature or two is behind schedule, it doesn’t postpone the update. In addition, according to Dunham, Psyonix is taking into account feedback from players who would have liked to see a schedule like the new one.

The game’s track record now spans PC and consoles. Only smartphones and tablets are missing. In any case, the developers were concerned about that: “As long as there’s demand, we’ll bring Rocket League to as many platforms as we can. The decisive factor here is how well a new version harmonizes with the existing ones. We have a large multi-platform community where most players compete against each other regardless of their chosen system thanks to cross-play,” he says.

“In the past we looked at mobile devices, we would never rule it out. The thing to consider is the controls when players with smart devices face others with a controller. If it’s more frustrating than fun to play Rocket League, we don’t do it. However, we have some creative people on the team and outside the studio. If we find the right way to implement it, it could happen. We’ll just wait and see where that takes us.”

There’s another thing Psyonix would like to be the lead on: cross-network play. At least as far as connectivity between PS4 and Xbox One players is concerned. The studio has repeatedly emphasized in the past that users of both systems could compete against each other at the push of a button. The technology behind it stands. Sony is the reason why it doesn’t work out, because the company refuses to agree so far.

“We’re trying to convince everyone about it, haha. We’re still hoping it happens, and we’re continuing to talk to them about it,” Dunham says. “There’s nothing to report at this time, we haven’t given up. Why are they resisting it? That’s a question best answered by Sony. I would not be able to prove any of my theories. Besides, I don’t want to seem disrespectful with any speculations, after all, we are talking about it. The talks are continuing…”

The most recent version of Rocket League is the Switch version. According to Dunham, the biggest challenge in developing the implementation was time. The creators’ goal was to release the game before the holiday shopping – Season without compromising gameplay or disappointing fans’ expectations. Most of the problems with the port came from getting to know the platform.

“As with the Xbox version, we hired the team at Panic Button to help us. That way, there were no restrictions on supporting the live game as we approached the release date with our work. Because of the Friends List infrastructure on the Switch, the foundation of what will ultimately become our cross-platform group feature was created. There was a lot to learn and a lot to build. We’re glad we did it in a timely manner and that the Switch community embraced it so well. What we’ve seen so far from the Switch side has been very encouraging,” he explains.

The team is “thrilled” with the response from Switch players. Many new Rocket League players joined on Nintendo’s platform, and Psyonix is planning additional features for the spring. These include improved performance in both modes, and players will have the choice of whether they prefer a higher resolution or a higher frame rate.

For Psyonix, it is the weakest platform on which the developers have released Rocket League so far. This results in additional development challenges, while at the same time appealing to a target audience that the game would otherwise not reach on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One: “Nintendo Switch owners are younger than on the other platforms, and it’s designed as a mobile device. So it’s only natural that compromises were necessary to make it affordable.”

So what does Psyonix’s future look like? Will Rocket League continue to be in the fork or can something new be expected? “Rocket League continues to take an important role and we are working with Tencent on a free-to-play version for China (we’ve come full circle). We also have a prototype team working on several different concepts. We’ll talk about these things when the time is right,” says Dunham.

The team isn’t being forced to rush into anything. They’re taking their time, as he indicates, “We’re fortunate to be in a position where there’s no need to rush a game release. With what comes next, we take our time. That’s what we did with Rocket League and it worked pretty well.”

In summary, you’ll have your friends on Rocket League for a long time to come. And Psyonix takes exemplary care of its community.