Rocket League’s free updates will add ice hockey and tons of crazy match options

Developer Psyonix has credited a massive, early surge of fan support for the success of Rocket League, its soccer-with-rocket-cars multiplayer game. The developer has expressed its gratitude with a good deal of free updates, along with some purchasable, downloadable content. But the latest round of free updates, scheduled for November and December, appears bigger and more consequential to how the game is played than anything released to date.

The November Rocket League update will allow players to “mutate” matches, according to a description on the official Rocket League YouTube page. In the video (above) a flurry of options flash on the screen, hinting at options that will change the gravity, shape, and size of the ball as well as the match rules. For December’s update, the video previews a reimagining of the game played on ice and with a puck.

Rocket League is likely to appear on numerous “best of” year-end lists, even without the updates, but this push of bonus free content seems calculated to get any remaining holdouts in a digital car and on the turf. And for those players who’ve been playing since release, it’s a reason to return — assuming any of them have stopped playing.