Rocket League developer Psyonix has announced the game will no longer support player-to-player trading as of 5th December this year, as the studio moves to "align with Epic's overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies".

Trading was introduced to Rocket League in 2016, giving players the opportunity to exchange certain earned items, including cosmetics dropped at the end of matches and revealed blueprints (but not premium DLC), with other players and third-party trading sites.

From 4pm PST on 5th December this year, however, player-to-player trading will be removed from the game. Explaining the change in a post to its website, Psyonix - which was acquired by Epic Games in 2019 - insisted this would align Rocket League with Epic's "overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren't tradable, transferrable, or sellable."

It added, rather unconvincingly, "This opens up future plans for some Rocket League vehicles to come to other Epic games over time, supporting cross-game ownership."

Psyonix notes unwanted or duplicate Core Items, Tournament Items, and Blueprints can still be traded via Rocket League's in-game system to receive a random new item of higher rarity, even though player-to-player trading will no longer be possible. Additionally, items acquired through player-to-player trading won't be lost when the new rules come into play in December.

Today's announcement follows Fortnite creator Epic's decision to lay off around 830 employees, approximately 16% of its total workforce, at the end of September - a move Epic CEO Tim Sweeney insisted would "stabilise [the company's] financing" after admitting, "For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn".