Living in the land of crossplay and rollback
Evo 2022 was a spectacular return to form after its years away as a one-of-a-kind event packed with top competitors from all over the world, crazy tournaments and just a lot of people who love fighting games.
Even the developers seem to have stepped up their announcement game this year, and there’s plenty of big reveals you could have missed if you looked away from the action for just a few minutes.
That’s why we’d like to provide you all a somewhat quick roundup and review of all the big fighting game announcements from this past weekend.
Just about every company who had a title on Evo’s mainstage had something important to show, and even some of those who didn’t still brought excitement to the event.
So let’s start at the beginning and work our way forward.
Nobody has been able to officially purchase Marvel vs. Capcom 2 since the remaster was pulled from digital stores in 2013, but that’s about to change.
Arcade1UP announced they’ll be releasing a special MvC2 cabinet later this year.
Moreover, the home arcade system will come packing 8 games in total between MvC2, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men: Children of the ATOM, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse and Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems.
Pre-orders will go live next month for $599 USD, and more information can be found here.
Atlus listened to fan feedback and committed to adding rollback netcode to Persona 4 Arena Ultimax earlier this year.
After a while of silence, they dropped the reveal that Ultimax’s rollback update is now available for PlayStation and PC players.
A thrilling announcement from EVO 2022 – the Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Rollback Netcode update is now available on Steam and PlayStation 4!
See you in the ring. 👊💥 pic.twitter.com/LEBVePHvxq
— Official ATLUS West (@Atlus_West) August 5, 2022
The indie fighting game Umbral Core was first unveiled earlier this summer, and the developers released a teaser trailer for the upcoming title to show off the early gameplay and talk about some details.
This dark and atmospheric fighter will release an open alpha later this year as well as a Kickstarter to help them reach their full vision.
Excited and proud to share Umbral Core’s preview trailer, world premiered during the #Evo2022 Showcase!
Kickstarter and open alpha later this year.
Follow us at:https://t.co/baLE347JjJhttps://t.co/fcN3RBveerhttps://t.co/n2C75UgPTb#fgc #indiedev #gamedev #unity3d #wip pic.twitter.com/epSy7LRRMI
— Umbral Core (@UmbralCore) August 6, 2022
During their Evo panel, Arc System Works revealed the content roadmap for Guilty Gear Strive’s second season.
A crossplay beta test between PlayStation and PC players is planned to release sometime this fall followed by the full update shortly after.
Guilty Gear has one more DLC character releasing this year during the fall too while the remaining fighters will drop sometime in 2023.
A new balance patch is also scheduled to launch sometime during the winter season.
You can find more information here.
One of the more unexpected announcements this weekend came at SNK’s Evo panel where the developers stated rollback netcode is on the way for most versions of 2019’s Samurai Shodown — a feature the community has been requesting since the original release.
That rollback update will come sometime around the spring of 2023.
SNK had another big quality of life improvement reveal for The King of Fighters 15 too with the title set to receive cross-platform play between Xbox, PlayStation and PC in 2023 too.
More information can be found here.
The developers of Skullgirls announced Marie will be the final DLC character coming to 2nd Encore’s Season Pass following Black Dahlia.
Marie was originally included as the game’s boss character and holder of the Skull Heart, but she’ll finally become a playable roster member sometime in 2023.
You can find more information here.
In the middle of their $100,000 Evo side tournament, Warner Bros. revealed a look at the Season 1 roadmap of content for MultiVersus.
As was previously announced, Rick and Morty will be coming to the game as 2 separate characters, and the official launch of Season 1 is also set to bring with it MultiVersus’ ranked online mode and a classic arcade mode.
Players will also be able to obtain additional cosmetic items like Lebron James as Robin and Valkyrie Bugs Bunny costumes.
No release date has been set for the start of MVS Season 1, but you can find more information here.
Following their Evo finals, Bandai Namco finally announced that Dragon Ball FighterZ will indeed be receiving a rollback netcode update, but there’s a few caveats.
Firstly, many players will have to upgrade their current copies of DBFZ because the rollback patch is only coming to the newly announced PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game as well as PC.
On top of that, content support has official ended for DBFZ after 4 years, and the developers aren’t planning any more balance patches either.
You can find more information here.
Not content with just their earlier SamSho and crossplay announcements, SNK also brought with them a look at Team Samurai for KOF15 consisting of Samurai Shodown characters Haohmaru, Nakoruru and Darli Dagger.
The first 2 characters of Season 2 were also revealed to be Shingo Yabuki plus Kim Kaphwan, and they’ll be releasing early in 2023.
You can find the trailer and more information here.
For one last surprise, SNK dropped the bomb that a brand new Fatal Fury / Garou title has officially been green-lit and presumably started production.
There hasn’t been a new entry in the iconic franchise since Garou: Mark of the Wolves released all the way back in 2000.
They only showed a single image of the project, which seems to imply that Rock Howard will carry over his protagonist status from the last Garou.
You can find more information here.
Bandai Namco teased the very first glimpse of their next generation Tekken project after Tekken 7’s Evo finals.
It only included a brief shot of a highly detailed Kazuya Mishima, and we don’t yet know if the game will indeed be Tekken 8 or something else.
Tekken 7 is also set to receive some additional developer support as well with a new battle update dropping on August 17 to rebalance the cast and add some more features to the gameplay.
More information can be found here.
Although you may have seen them elsewhere, Capcom officially announced that newcomer Kimberly and Street Fighter 4 favorite Juri Han are playable characters in Street Fighter 6.
Both world warriors received slick new trailers that provided a taste of what their gameplay will provide in Street Fighter 6.
Tasty Steve and James Chen were also revealed to be among the in-game commentators included in Street Fighter 6.
You can watch the trailers and find more information here.
Guilty Gear Strive officially closed out Evo this year with the largest in-game tournament the series has ever seen, and Arc System Works had one last surprise for everyone.
The developers dropped Bridget’s gameplay trailer as the first DLC character of Strive Season 2 with yo-yos and teddy bears aplenty.
Oh, and you can play as the classic Guilty Gear fighter now.
You can find Bridget’s trailer and more information here.
And that wraps up our recap of every big fighting game announcement made at Evo 2022.
Let us know in the comments which of the big reveals were your favorite / most unexpected as well as your top moments from the tournament action.