Rocket League dev promises swift fix for stroke-inducing lights in a new patch

Rocket League's latest arena addition, Neon Fields, has come under fire for inducing a seizure in a player, and developer Psyonix is pleading to fix the issue in a new update.

Earlier this week, The Loadout reported that a player had experienced a seizure while playing Rocket League's new Neon Fields arena. The new arena itself bombards the player with a haze of strobe lights, and it's this pattern that reportedly induced a seizure within the player.

Yesterday on January 26, Rocket League developer Psyonix promised a swift fix to the issue. In a blog post on the official Rocket League website, the developer revealed that an incoming patch, launching on February 1, would allow players to toggle the light settings on the Neon Fields arena, disabling the pulsing effects, flashing lights, the brightness and intensity of background lights, and more.

"Based on recent player feedback, we've become aware that the effects and lighting in Neon Fields can negatively impact the game experience for some players," the blog post from Psyonix reads. "To ensure that Rocket League remains enjoyable for all players, we're adding a new settings option called "Effect Intensity" that adjusts the intensity and motion of visuals for this Arena."

Late last year in December 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 was similarly criticized for inducing a seizure in a player through strobe lighting effects. CD Project apologized, and swiftly added a new "risk of seizure" warning at the outset of the game. Shortly after, Microsoft confirmed to us that they were looking to "improve our certification process" following criticism that the strobe lighting effects were allowed to pass through certification with no critiques.

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