Developer Arc System Works has announced Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 (as well as the original Revelator) will receive rollback netcode in the very near future, starting with a public test on Steam in October.Rollback netcode is the new gold standard when it comes to fighting games. After the pandemic forced everyone to play online, lag became a serious issue for fighting game enthusiasts. Any matches that took place over great distances or against opponents with a poor connection could turn into stilted, jittery duels where the winner was determined more by luck than skill.That’s where rollback netcode comes in. The old delay-based netcode would always wait for both sides to have a solid connection before gameplay could resume. Rollback netcode doesn’t wait. Instead, it predicts what the player would do based on their recent actions. If the code guessed right, gameplay continues without interruption. If it guessed wrong, then it will roll back to the last decision that it goofed up.
It’s not always perfect, and there’s only so much rollback netcode can do if the connection is truly abysmal, but pretty much every fighting game player agrees that rollback netcode is the best option for online play, bar none.
After the successful release of Guilty Gear Strive, Arc System Works has been on a mission to update all its old fighting games to rollback netcode. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax got its upgrade over the summer, while Dragon Ball FighterZ's upgrade is still on its way. Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is starting with a public test on Steam, but it shouldn't be too long after that before it rolls out everywhere, barring any last-minute catastrophes.