Samurai Shodown rollback beta test also coming to Steam
Back at Evo 2022, SNK gave fans a small taste of what they’re cooking up for their latest fighting games, and now there’s more details about what’s coming when.
The developers released a new trailer for The King of Fighters 15 Season 2, which reveals the launch window of their next characters, crossplay beta and balance update as well as a rollback beta dropping for Samurai shodown
As noted by the trailer, it appears we have confirmation that DLC characters in Season 2 will be releasing as individuals instead of a full team like Season 1, and the first to kick off the new year will be Shingo Yabuki in January 2023.
Along with Shingo will come a new balance update to take another swing at adjusting the game’s full roster, but that’s not all fans have to look forward to in the coming months.
Kim Kaphwan is unsurprisingly second in line for the DLC, and he’ll be presumably dropping at the same time as KOF15’s planned cross-platform beta test between PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, Windows and Epic Games Store sometime next Spring.
Samurai Shodown players are also getting a piece of the pie, as a rollback beta test is coming only to the Steam version of the game in January too although the full update will launch on PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Epic at some point in 2023.
There’s even more characters planned for the second year of KOF15, but it sounds like we’ll probably be waiting quite a while to see who they are at this current rate.
Anyone playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, which got released today,on Xbox or PC is finding themselves in the shallow video game trenches, but not the kind they had hoped for. Infinity Ward’s first-person shooter seems to have a console preference, with Xbox players unable toswitch offcrossplay, a function that allows people on different platforms to play together, through the actual game. Meanwhile, PlayStation users can toggle the function with cheerful abandon thanks to a built-in option.
Disgruntled Xbox players want to avoid PC cheaters and precise mice and keyboards, while PC users would rather avoid consoles’ smooth aim assist. PlayStation users, meanwhile, are dealing with audio dropouts and being required to delete their files if they tried stealthily starting a game in a different region for early access.
But they aren’t, at least, worried about crossplay. And Sony sweetened their deal further—shortly ahead of release, the Call of Duty website listed a few PS4 and PS5-specific benefits, including monthly double XP events, +25% weapon XP when playing with other PS users in a party, and two extra loadout slots after reaching Level 4.
Console wars are an expectation for Call of Duty games at this point. While Microsoft is slowly working on buying billion-dollar-baby Activision, on October 26, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said he was more interested in mobile and planning on “[treating] CoD like Minecraft,” The Verge editor Tom Warren reported.
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A gift for literally everybody. Gifts under $20, $10, and even $5. It’s Wish, the catch-all shop for all of the above.
Activision’s current partner Sony is, instead, treating the franchise like a precious child prodigy. And, perhaps to Xbox players dismay, even after Microsoft’s deal goes through, Sony will commandeer Call of Dutyfor “several more years” after its contract with Activision expires.
So Call of Duty’s background console wars aren’t ending soon. In the meantime, Xbox players can go into their settings and block crossplay from within the “Online safety & family” tab. From there, you select Communication & multiplayer, and then you block people from outside Xbox Live. Doing this to play Modern Warfare II, however, will probably increase your queue times, since you’ll only be able to match a more limited group of players with the same safety settings. You just can’t win.
Update 11:33 a.m:We’ve updated the headline to reflect the workaround mentioned in the article.
During their Evo panel today, SNK shared a handful of exciting announcements for both King of Fighters 15 as well as Samurai Shodown.
For King of Fighters this includes both short and long term DLC information, such as the release date for the recently revealed Team Awakened Orochi characters, and for SamSho it’s all about netcode.
Developers took to the stage to offer a few details and footage on how the three upcoming Team Awakened Orochi fighters, alternate versions of Shermie, Yashiro, and Chris, will play. They also offered a release date for the upcoming team: August 8.
The panel also noted that they’re working on cross-platform play for KOF15, but that it will not be ready to roll out until some time in 2023. Currently Sony console users can play with one another, but not with Microsoft users. This should be changing in the coming months, however.
Evo’s biggest reveals tend to happen on finals day, and SNK shared that they haven’t shown everything for this weekend just yet. Though we’re definitely excited to get our hands on Team Awakened Orochi in just three days, we’ll soon have yet another new team to look forward to as there’s another reveal slated for this Sunday.
Finally, another season of DLC is confirmed for King of Fighters 15 with additional information also slated to roll out on Sunday.
Samurai Shodown, which released back in 2019, will be getting rollback netcode for online play on almost all platforms. Developers are aiming for the spring of 2023 for this update, and will be available on all platforms save for the Nintendo Switch (due to technical limitations, according to the devs).
You can view the panel via the Twitch archive video here. It begins at the 4:40:10 mark and lasts for just over 30 minutes.
Borderlands games are always best enjoyed with friends, so it’s a bummer that players of the latest entry, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, have had to fly solo—at least, if they’re trying to play online, or make use of the ballyhooed crossplay feature. For the past two weeks, the latest in Gearbox’s series of loot-shooters has had some seriously wonky server woes.
This isn’t exactly a surprise; online multiplayer games launch in various states of “busted” all the damn time, and the Borderlands series itself doesn’t have the best track record. But it’s a bit different than your typical case of server woes. For one thing, sure, while the servers are busted, they’re not engulfed in a headline-generating five-alarm fire the way launch windows for, say, Outriders or Diablo III famously were. For another, while issues persist, the game’s official channels have been oddly silent about the matter.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which came out late last month for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, is the first Borderlands game to launch with full crossplay. Like previous Borderlands games, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands facilitates online groups through Gearbox’s proprietary online service, Shift. You can also use the service to redeem “Shift codes,” single-use tokens that award you a rare piece of gear in-game. (One kind soul assembled a Twitter bot that announces availability for and releases Shift codes.) You can monitor the status of Shift via its official Twitter account.
On March 25, Wonderlands’ official launch day, the account noted how, even though players might see a notification saying they’ve been disconnected from Shift, they’re actually fine; it’s just an errant pop-up. Three hours later, Gearbox said it noticed “reports” of “instability,” and spent the next few days chronicling its efforts to improve functionality. On March 29, Gearbox rolled out an update intended to address crashes on all platforms. By March 31, the studio said that “most players” are in the clear, with “limited cases of disconnections” through the world’s worst holiday.
“We’ve seen some reports of players disconnecting from online play,” reads the account’s most recent tweet, posted on April 2. “If these issues persist, please restart your game!”
Unfortunately, restarting your game doesn’t always seem to do the trick. In response to the account’s tweet, players say that reboots don’t fix connectivity woes, and when they do, it’s only a temporary salve. (Funny aside: One player even pointed out how they couldn’t even submit a ticket through the Shift support page.) Over on the game’s subreddit, there’s a thread, closing in on 1,000 comments, where players commiserating about how they can’t play with friends online. Connection issues seem to be most keenly felt during crossplay sessions, but it’s still not exactly smooth sailing with traditional matchmaking on the same platform.
Earlier this week, for instance, I partied up with my colleague Zack Zwiezen, both of us playing on Xbox Series X with wired connections. We made it about 75 percent of the way through the tutorial segment before Zack disappeared into the ether. We couldn’t get a game going again for the rest of the evening. Zack also told me how he’s run into serious crossplay issues while playing with his fiancée, on PC and Xbox. They often can’t start a game, he said, despite both playing off the same modem. In the rare instances where they can get one going, it’s laggy and desynced AF. Zack told me how one player would kill enemies, see them die, and have them pop right back up as if nothing happened.
Hey, at least there’s splitscreen!
Representatives for Gearbox declined to answer queries on the record and directed Kotaku to the Shift status Twitter account instead.
Xbox players are growing increasingly frustrated at being forced to play against PC gamers. While crossplay was initially a popular request from Xbox and PC players that Microsoft has backed strongly for years, those playing first-person shooters on Xbox are struggling to opt out of the experience to avoid PC cheaters.
Games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Halo Infinite force Xbox players to match against PC gamers in a variety of playlists. You don’t have to look very far to see why people are angry about it. “Now that cheating in Halo is confirmed on PC, can we have to option to opt out of cross-play?” asked one Reddit post in November, just weeks after the multiplayer version of Halo Infinite launched.
“Forced crossplay is a scam by Microsoft,” reads another post in Microsoft’s Halo Waypoint forums. “Forced crossplay is a mistake,” says another Redditor, and the list goes on, and on, and on.
Halo Infinite and Call of Duty: Warzone are both suffering from an influx of cheating, largely because they’re free-to-play titles so it’s easy for hackers to create a new account following a ban. While there’s an option to disable crossplay in Warzone, if you try to load into a playlist on Xbox it will ask you to re-enable it. Whereas on PlayStation you can simply dismiss the prompt and continue to the playlist with crossplay still disabled.
Warzone players on Xbox have been complaining about this forced crossplay for more than a year, with various forum posts and YouTube videos highlighting how irritating it is to be forced into crossplay. Most of the issues are related to PC cheaters, who have plagued Warzone for years before Activision finally added a new anti-cheat system in October with a kernel-level driver to catch PC cheaters.
Now that cheaters are already ruining Halo Infinite multiplayer games, the call to remove forced crossplay is certainly growing louder. Halo Infinite players on Xbox are matched against PC gamers in most playlists, and even in ranked modes you have to play solo or as a duo to avoid forced crossplay. If you want to squad up as a team of three or four, you’ll be forced to play against PC players in ranked Halo Infinite modes.
Halo Infinite is already suffering from an influx of cheaters.Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Microsoft’s decision to force crossplay in its own Halo Infinite title runs against previous commitments from the company’s head of Xbox. “I’ll never force somebody in our games whose playing with a controller or a mouse and keyboard to play against somebody with a different control scheme,” said Xbox chief Phil Spencer in an interview with Gamespot in 2016. “Mouse and keyboard rotation speed is faster than controller. We know that, you’ll lose.”
Nothing has changed in the classic arguments between mouse and keyboard players and controllers. Xbox players simply want the option to be able to opt out of crossplay, and not to have to be forced to play against PC players. A lot of PC players would also like to avoid controller aim assist in games like Warzone and Halo Infinite.
Battlefield 2042 launched in November with forced crossplay for Xbox players, and an option to disable it for PlayStation owners. In a sign that things can change, Developer DICE was quick to add the option to disable crossplay for Xbox players just a few weeks after launch. Even Microsoft’s Sea of Thieves, the original darling of crossplay, added an option to disable forced crossplay a few years after launch.
We reached out to both Microsoft and Activision to comment on the forced crossplay situation, and neither company was willing to issue a statement in time for publication. 343 Industries, the developer behind Halo Infinite, made it clear it’s trying to address the cheating issues in the game yesterday. 343 is hoping to address cheating and “other things” in a patch in mid-February. 343 won’t be magically fixing cheating issues from its game with a single patch, but here’s hoping there’s an option to avoid most of them next month.
Monster Hunter Rise won’t include an option to transfer saves from Switch or play with folks on other platforms when it arrives on PC early next year, the series’ official Twitter account confirmed today.
“We’ve heard your requests for cross-save and cross-play for [Monster Hunter Rise and the upcoming Sunbreak expansion],” the announcement reads, “but unfortunately, after looking into it throughout the development process, we found we are unable to implement it this time. As always, we appreciate your continued feedback and support.”
Monster Hunter Rise first launched on Switch last March, providing a more traditional monster-hunting experience compared to 2018’s widely acclaimed Monster Hunter World. Its introduction of ridable canine companions and more fluid movement options made the game an immediate hit with longtime fans, but newcomers found difficulty acclimating to its convoluted controls and lack of in-game direction.
Like previous Monster Hunter installments, Rise is very much a game about constant progression. Every hunt is in service of gathering resources for weapons and armor that are, in turn, used to defeat bigger prey for resources to make even better equipment.
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As such, dedicated players on Switch have spent the last six months developing badass hunters and expanding their armories. The fact that they won’t be able to carry that progress over to the PC version—which promises to be a much more beautiful, technically impressive experience than on Nintendo’s relatively underpowered hardware—is a huge bummer.
It should be pointed out that Monster Hunter: World also didn’t include cross-platform save transferring or cross-play, so at the very least Capcom is being consistently disappointing.
Monster Hunter Rise comes to PC on January 12, 2022 with support for 4K and ultrawide resolutions as well as uncapped framerates and high-resolution textures. Sunbreak, the game’s first major expansion, is planned to have a simultaneous release on Switch and PC sometime next summer. Just don’t expect to be switching between platforms for the foreseeable future.
The PC version of Monster Hunter Rise (Image: Capcom / Steam)
As you might have heard, Capcom’s insanely successful Nintendo Switch title Monster Hunter Rise is coming to the PC in 2022. If you’re interested in checking out this version but are worried about having to start the hunt again, then read on.
Following on from the game’s spotlight at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Capcom has shared a survey asking fans a series of personal questions and how they feel about the game. One question, in particular, that’s got a lot of attention makes reference to cross-play, cross-saves and cross-progression.
The exact question asks the following, and below this are some of the options you can select from:
What, if anything, would make you more interested in purchasing Monster Hunter Rise on PC? Please select all that apply. – Cross-play between PC and Nintendo Switch versions – Cross-save or cross-progression with Nintendo Switch version
If you are interested in checking out the PC release prior to its release, a free demo of this version will be released on October 13th via Steam.
Would these types of features make you more interested in picking up Monster Hunter Rise when it’s released on PC? Tell us down in the comments.
Today, Digital Extremes announced during TennoCon 2021 that its popular online shooter Warframe will get full cross-play and cross-save support later this year, letting space ninjas take their characters across PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One seamlessly.
The big news, revealed at the top of the live stream, was that Warframewill finally get true, cross-save, and cross-play support, something fans have been asking requesting for years. In a press release, Digital Extremes explained the decision to add these features to the eight-year-old shooter.
“Community is incredibly important to us,” said Sheldon Carter, chief operating officer at Digital Extremes. “Opening up cross-play and cross-save is just one of many more efforts we’ll take on to bring more players together including extending Warframe’s fast, fluid, action combat experience to other global gaming platforms.”
Read More:Warframe’s Big Twist Knocked My Brain Clean Out Of My Head
During the TennoLive video stream, Digital Extremes also teased that a version of Warframe is currently in development for mobile devices too. No more details about this port were shared at the event.
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The devs showcased a small bit of gameplay live on the stream showing how folks on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile will be able to easily group up and play together in all previously released Warframe content.
Screenshot: Digital Extremes / Twitch
Digital Extremes explained that this was the most requested feature by the community by a long, long shot and the team was excited to finally show it off.
Warframe’s next major, free update, The New War, was shown off today during this event. Digital Extremes showed off gameplay of the new update. No specific date was given for when this next update, pitting players against a big, bad enemy know as the Sentients, will be released. The current release window is later this year.
Bungie gave Destiny 2players a big update on the developer’s plans throughout the rest of 2021, as well as a peek into 2022. There are big campaigns and additions coming, but one of the biggest announcements is the addition of cross-play between Windows PC and console players.
Crossplay is coming to the masses in Season 15. We’ll be doing some internal rollouts and alpha tests in Season 14 to prepare for a widespread launch this fall. With Crossplay, you’ll be able to play with all your friends no matter what platform you call home. And don’t worry, we won’t be matching console and PC players together in the Crucible unless PC players specifically invite their console friends to play with them in the PC Crucible pools.
Previously, PC players were locked to only playing with PC players, and console players were in the same boat. In PvP games and first-person shooters, keyboard and mouse controls are considered to be a little more exact, which is an advantage in PvP modes like the Crucible. Luckily, the raids and cooperative parts of the game don’t have the same restrictions.
This update should provide the best of both worlds. If console players want to go into the Crucible against PC players, they’re able to do so by playing with PC friends. Otherwise, everyone will be able to play together, which should make Destiny 2 a much easier social experience to share.
Cross-play is planned for the fall of 2021, but Bungie will be testing the feature throughout Season 14 with internal testing and alpha tests. More details will be coming on these tests in the future, but for now, it’s promising to know that Destiny 2 players will eventually join together for a good old fashioned raid.
Overcooked All You Can Eat, which bundles all of the content from Overcooked and Overcooked 2 into one big package, will be released on Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam on March 23rd, developer Ghost Town Games announced on Monday. Right now, the game is only available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, so a lot more players will be able to jump into this combined bundle with the wider release.
Overcooked All You Can Eat also serves as a remaster for the games, running at 60fps and a 4K resolution. The game also has faster loading times, which I personally am happy to hear about. Levels in the Switch version of Overcooked 2 sometimes loaded frustratingly slowly.
HOT NEWS JUST IN
Overcooked! All You Can Eat comes to Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One & Steam March 23rd!
Both original games & new content New kitchens & chefs New accessibility options & assist mode Online multiplayer for ALL kitchens Cross-play coming soon
THE SCANDAL! pic.twitter.com/ndh8cGwWVz
— Overcooked (@Overcookedgame) February 15, 2021
Ghost Town Games also announced that Overcooked All You Can Eat will be getting support for crossplay multiplayer on all platforms in an update coming “soon.” The game already supported crossplay on PS5 and Xbox Series X, so it’s great to see that it will be expanded to all platforms. Overcooked is a fantastic multiplayer game, and being able to play with friends no matter what platform they’re on will make it that much easier to experience some cooking mayhem.
Overcooked All You Can Eat also has some assist mode options and new accessibility features.
