Awesomenauts: Overdrive includes a massive overhaul of our matchmaking system and updates to core game mechanics! In addition to these features, Awesomenauts: Overdrive will add three technologically-advanced characters to the playable roster and bring visual improvements to various aspects of the game, including a complete visual rework of fan-favorite Sheriff Lonestar!

Most of these features will be made available for free to all our existing and future players!

• New Matchmaking (Free): We will introduce a completely new matchmaking system, running on our own servers. It will both be a lot more stable and do a better job at pairing players of an equal skill level, while also keeping connection quality between peers in mind. This will make the game more rewarding for veteran players, and be less daunting for new recruits! Whether you win or lose a match, everybody wins with this new system.
• Premium Characters: The time-travelling inventor (Professor M. Yoolip), the hyperbike-riding bounty hunter (Chucho Krokk), and the LUX5000 bot piloted by the twin babies Jimmy and Amy, are gearing up to join the Awesomenauts. These three Awesomenauts will form the premium content for the Awesomenauts: Overdrive Expansion when they all launch simultaneously on Steam in March 2016.
• Overhauled Game Mechanics (Free): Fight as a team, win as a team! The new XP and Leveling system was added to Awesomenauts in the 2.13 update. This system makes matches more dynamic, enabling both steady progression and more dramatic comebacks! The XP and Leveling system is one of the core mechanics in the game now and the first big step of many changes to come. We’ll continue to iterate on various game mechanics in the coming months.
• Visual Update (Free): It was time for some of the ‘Nauts to join the thirty-sixth century, and Sheriff Lonestar is first in line! He has received a complete visual overhaul, and has had all of his animations and costumes redone. More content that has been with us since the launch of Awesomenauts will receive visual updates over the next several months!

Also releasing between now and June 2016, but not released as part of the Awesomenauts: Overdrive expansion:

• New Map: Starstorm Station (Free): The Starstorm Station approaches! The bonus map that we’ve been developing as part of our Awesomenauts: Starstorm crowdfunding campaign is nearing completion and will be released in the coming months!
• New Character: Ix the Interloper (Free): Ix the Interloper, which was designed by our very own Awesomenauts community, will join the roster as a free character later on.

Awesomenauts is out now on Steam, while the premium Awesomenauts: Overdrive Expansion content can be pre-ordered from the official website. Users who pre-order before the three characters launch on Steam in March 2016 will receive a Steampunk Yoolip skin for free!