Rollback Netcode Coming to Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

The fighting game genre has gone through a big change over the last couple of years. Namely, the preference for having (well-implemented) rollback netcode has become a lot more popular and its inclusion in games has become a selling point. Even though most of the biggest fighting game series have begun to adopt the more internationally-friendly netcode, one developer who has been at the forefront of this change is Arc System Works.

Both Guilty Gear Strive and DNF Duel were released with rollback netcode. At Community Effort Orlando (CEO) 2021, it was revealed that the two latest entries in their BlazBlue franchise would be retroactively updated to have rollback implemented. The same announcement was made last month at EVO 2022 for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Dragon Ball FighterZ. A surprise announcement at CEOtaku 2022 revealed that we can now expect the same for Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator and Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2.

A 30-second trailer relayed the news right before the Guilty Gear Strive Top 8 began at CEOtaku. It also revealed that a public test would begin on Steam in late October and assuming that this is being handled the same way that both of the previous BlazBlue titles and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax have been, this public test will likely be available as a beta that players can opt-in for. While it can also be readily assumed that the PlayStation 3 version likely won’t see this update, there’s been no confirmation on whether the PlayStation 4 version will or if it will only come to the Steam version.

Although Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 did see big changes to character movesets alongside a few new characters, it is commonly seen as more of a title update than a sequel. There’s even an option to revert to the base game’s balancing that can allow one to play against players without the update. Rollback netcode being added for both should preserve that dynamic. I’ll be following along to see when the beta will begin and when it will be officially available.