The Japanese Round Table | The Future of Fighting Games

We recently saw what was called the Japan Fighting Game Publishers Round Table, which featured the big figure-heads of the fighting game genre. Capcom, Bandai Namco, SNK, Arc System Works and more were talking about the current state of their respective games and the genre overall. 

With regards to content for the players, the stand-out games were Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6, and Guilty Gear Strive. I want to go over some of the announcements, talking-points and then my opinions and desires regarding specific games. Let’s go.

The Round Table

So, what was the RoundTable? That’s quite the epic name, so one would imagine that they will be going into some serious detail about their games and what’s to come in the future. The conference was mainly a way for the developers to get information across to the fans about exactly that; what was to come. While that sounds great, it honestly wasn’t all that exciting. Get ready for quite a few ‘Announcement for an announcement’s because they really loved those.

I also want to mention the commonly brought up netcode. This was briefly glossed over by the members of the stream and was considered as being “Too expensive” to implement. Harada proceeded to talk about how Tekken 7 almost has rollback netcode, but that doesn’t mean that it does. According to the Round Table, 50% of players online are using wireless WI-FI connections… You know who you are and I’m disappointed in you.

This is currently a more important issue than ever when it comes to fighting games. All of the names featured at the Roundtable have a form of World Tour revolving around their game(s) which they are currently having to substitute with an Online version, or they are simply not holding the event this year due to COVID. You would think that now would be the most important time to talk about this topic and push to implement it into your game. I know that Granblue Fantasy Versus is currently suffering due to poor online and growing frustration amongst the community.

Even Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros’ Ultimate has just recently patched their netcode to improve online functionality. This is a company that has only recently begun to embrace the fact that their game is enjoyed in a competitive scene. 

The Announcements (and the Announcements of Announcements)

Here is a list of what everyone had to say…

Koei Tecmo Games:

• Dead or Alive 6 – Summer sale

SNK:

• Samurai Shodown – Free DLC character
• Samurai Shodown – Season pass 3
• King of Fighters 15 – Announcement of an announcement 

Capcom:

• SFV – 2 week Free to play period
• Capcom Pro Tour Online
• Summer Announcement for season 5
• Summer update has been and gone. We will be getting new characters:
  • Dan Hibiki
  • Oro
  • Rose
  • Akira Kazama (Rival School)
  • ???? Mystery 5th character

Arika:

• Fighting EX Layer – Open beta for rollback netcode (This is one of the smaller companies, yet they have invested in rollback)
• Crossplay testing
• Announcement of an announcement 

Bandai Namco:

• Soul Calibur – DLC character Setsuka
• Free content update
• Soul Calibur online challenge
• DBZF – Announcement of an announcement 

ArcSystem Works:

• Arc Revolution Online 2020 in October

• Granblue Fantasy Versus – Announcement of an announcement 

• Guilty Gear Strive – Leo and Nagoriyuki reveal trailers.
• Strive will be on both PS4 and PS5
• Announcement of an announcement in October. Most likely regarding the Arc Revolution online tournament.

That’s all we got from the Round Table. As I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t as great as I has hoped it would be, but I think most developers wanted to keep their big announcements for their individual events.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

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