https://www.rocketleague.com/news/rocket-league-going-free-to-play-this-summer/

Key points from the announcement:

Free to Play this Summer

Will launch on the Epic Game Store at the same time

Will not be sold on Steam anymore, but game will still have full support

Cross platform progression finally possible with Epic Games account

People who bought it before will get Legacy items

Revamp of features like Tournaments and Challenges

My personal take as resident Rocket League expert:

I always expected it to go F2P once it goes on the EGS. There are 2 big things in this news that are not specifically mentioned.

1. RL will be tied to a central account finally. That enables not only cross platform progression but also most likely cross platform trading.
2. It also means finally certainty about the migration from Steam to EGS. Since you have a centralized account you can just move your stuff from one platform to the next without losing any.

This means I'll finally be able to get my beta rewards and all of my items from PS4 on my main account. It'll also mean I can scrap my multiple steam accounts for my alt accounts and will have to replace them with EG accounts, hopefully that's not gonna be too hard.

I might consider requesting a refund if an Epic Games account is required for old Steam players. I absolutely despise what Epic is doing in regard to exclusivities in general and have no wish to support it in any manner.

Other than that, I'm OK with the free-to-play move.

As of right now it seems that account linking is optional and would only be used to benefit from cross platform progression. I don't think they can really afford the massive amount of backlash if they required an EGS account.

I know it's only $19.99, and goes on sale for $9.99 at least a few times a year. But this is an example of my patience paying off. I was going to buy the game eventually, but now I won't have to.

Now here's a free to play game I might actually play

Certainly seems that way, which is nice. I'm still not a fan of removing the game from Steam (for new players), but since it doesn't affect me, I can bear it (well, I probably don't have a choice, besides not playing a game I've paid for). That said, I can totally see both Epic and Rocket League being able to take the backlash if they forced an Epic Games account. My impression is that in these cases, most of the backlash usually comes from a very vocal minority which rarely has a chance to actually do much.

There would be absolutely no benefit of them forcing it, though. Making it F2P and exclusive to EGS will already bring tons of new players to the game and store. Forcing everyone who is not already on the store won't make them suddenly customers. It's really not worth the backlash, at least not now. They might consider it down the line.