Rocket League dev walks back statements on 'aggressive' DLC plans

Rocket League, the strangely addictive mashup of soccer and driving games, has a lot going for it right now. Launched less than two weeks ago, the title is featured as a free-to-own title for PlayStation Plus members this month, feeding fresh meat into a growing grinder also populated by PC players. The game has become incredibly popular, so much so that when the dedicated servers started flaking out no one cared.

The confluence of players from more than 2 million downloads has the developers working feverishly on updates as well as DLC, and when they spoke with PlayStation Universe earlier this month, they made some bold statements about their next steps.

"Our future plans for Rocket League are VERY aggressive," a spokesperson from developer Psyonix said [emphasis PlayStation Universe's]. "We plan on supporting the game with frequent updates, patches, enhancements, and more, that will include a mix of both free and paid DLC. That includes new Battle-Cars, Decals, Rocket Boosts, Antennas, Wheels, and other things.

In the interview they stressed that maps would always be free, but said that they had "a lot of other ideas floating in the pipeline."

"Weapons aren't something we plan to add in Rocket League — but power-ups are possible. New game modes and game-changing events/ items will be based on community demand and where our players want to take us!"

"There are not going to be power-ups added to the game"

Psyonix's zeal to get new content into the game spooked some members of the Rocket League Reddit community, now some 30,000 members strong.

"When I read an article about the interview I became a little worried," wrote Reddit user TrueAppleJay. "The game right now is fantastic and easy to learn while challenging and balanced. It's a skill based game almost in its entirety. ... If you play casually you still manage to have some of the most fun you may have while playing video games.

"I am very concerned that power-ups in the vein of stronger hits, faster cars, and higher jumps will ruin the perfect balance the game currently masters."

But the team at Psyonix was quick to step in and amend their statement.

"There are not going to be power-ups added to the game," wrote Psyonix_Dave. "We're not going to change balance, add stats, change physics, etc. We have a good formula and there are already infinite ways to make the game even better without changing core gameplay. That answer may have been based on the possibility of adding mutators that allow private matches to change things up for a single match just to mix things up but absolutely not for regular gameplay."

Rocket League is already receiving attention from the eSports community. The ESL has set up both a European and a North American division and the very first Kick Off Cup was held on July 12.