Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is finally getting rollback netcode after six years

More than six years after its release, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is finally getting rollback netcode on Steam.

The feature for Arc System Works’ 2D fighter first went into public beta testing back in October 2022, lasting for a few weeks. It clearly went well, as it’ll be officially rolled out into the game (opens in new tab) on January 20, bringing it in line with its newer sibling Guilty Gear Strive. It’ll allow for a much smoother experience online, bringing it a little closer to how playing offline feels. It can be one of the biggest make-or-break features for a fighting game—bad netcode can kill a game’s community faster than anything else. Just ask the remaining three SoulCalibur 6 players. (Kidding!)

It’s nice to see Arc System Works continuing to support Xrd, and retroactively fitting fighters with rollback netcode has been a fairly common thing as of late. At EVO 2022, both Dragon Ball FighterZ and Samurai Shodown (opens in new tab) were announced to be receiving rollback netcode. At the time, both games were around four years old and one year old respectively. It’s definitely a feature that’s preferably boxed in with the game at launch, however. Street Fighter 6 (opens in new tab) has already announced it’ll be launching with rollback netcode, which is a blessing. There’s still no word on if Tekken 8 will do the same.

It’s a feature that’s even beginning to bleed out beyond fighters. Stormgate, the upcoming RTS from ex-Blizzard developers, is planning on incorporating rollback (opens in new tab), with Frost Giant’s chief architect James Anhalt calling it “the most responsive RTS game” he’s ever worked on.