Since it’s explosive beginnings in 2012, three season books, twelve teams, five giants and over 20 MVPs have followed the release of the Futuristic Sports Game.

Yet, we’re declaring 2015 the year of DreadBall.

This starts with Season 4. This brings four new teams for everyone to try, from the alien hosts of the Rebs Team (who are rather sweet in the rules I have to say!) to the hammer-head Sphyr Teams. There are also accompanying rules for which you’ll need to add pitch-invading Fans to your games, and reap the benefits of the Achievements system.

Next however, things are about to get a whole lot more violent!

DreadBall Xtreme – The Galaxy’s Most Brutal Sport

It’s well documented that without the original Kickstarter we would have only been able to do the two original teams in plastic, and we only ever had four planned at the start of the campaign.

During the Kickstarter we came up with the idea of Seasons – Season 2 was simply to add some new teams, and then we stumbled across the idea for multiplayer and big players. Season 3 would become DreadBall Ultimate. But right at the end of the campaign we thought there might even be a Season 4. If DreadBall was FIFA then Season 4 would be FIFA Street.

We hinted and teased at this during the Kickstarter – even the last stretch goal was for the first MVP, introducing the infamous Blaine to the world, but we chose to stop at the end of Season 3 on the Kickstarter.

Blaine would go on to become one of the two sponsors in DreadBall Xtreme, as well as join the Tiger Corps in Mars Attacks, a mercenary in Deadzone and the Tyrant King in Dungeon Saga and Kings of War!

Fast forward to just after Season 3 was released and we recognized that there was an appetite for more, and so we returned to the idea of DreadBall, but underground, away from the bright lights and fancy stadiums of the GCPS.

We wanted more bloodshed, more violence, new arenas, interactive pitches and Ronnie’s most important thing – a way to build your team from any miniature in the DreadBall range so that the team you play in a league is genuinely your own.

And that morphed into what became DreadBall Xtreme – which you’ll now find is available to pre-order from your favourite retailer or the Mantic webstore today.

DreadBall Xtreme is set in makeshift arenas littered with traps – some that might even explode! These arenas are arranged in random layouts so you’ll rarely play on the same pitch more than once, and you can never quite be sure of the team you’ll be facing.

Xtreme introduces Sponsors to the mix that allow you to hire Free Agents into your team. Perhaps you’ll add some training robots to your Convicts, or a Zee Buccanear or two to your Kalyshi. These Sponsors also intimidate, bribe and generally cause havoc, and can also bet on the outcome of the game, giving you extra funds for advancements. And, when the Xpansion is released later in the year, you’ll be able to play any team with Xtreme and use the Sponsors system to create your own unique teams.

Xtreme has no referees, so you can enact as much single-minded bloodshed and carnage as you can possibly fathom. Exploding shock collars, blood-sucking aliens and rampaging aliens are to name but a few of the most devastating parts of the game.

We’ll be going into all these different aspects of DreadBall Xtreme next week on the blog, and you can check out the game here for a full list of contents.

The Year of DreadBall

There’s much to come from the Year of DreadBall with a dedicated website, organised play, league software and a rankings system in the works. Let us know your ideas of how you want DreadBall to be supported this year!

DreadBall Xtreme is the galaxy’s most brutal sport and is now available for pre-order. It begins shipping March 2015.