Rollback netcode is an important feature seen as the next step of connectivity in the fighting game community. With pinpoint reactions needed by the best of the best, does The King of Fighters XV feature rollback netcode?
Fortunately, SNK has listened and will be supporting rollback netcode in The King of Fighters XV. Back in February 2021, the series producer Yasuyuki Oda confirmed that the development team was working on the feature.
“You will be happy to hear that we have been working hard on an internal rollback solution for KOF XV from early in the dev cycle,” said Oda on Twitter. Thankfully, the team has been able to work the much-requested feature into SNK’s premiere fighting game franchise in The King of Fighters XV.
Rather than focusing on the maligned delay-based system, The King of Fighters XV has rollback, which predicts the move you’re about to do to reduce laggy inputs. It’s been heavily lauded by popular fighting game streamers like Maximilian_Dood, who just hit one million followers on January 18. That’s a huge amount of influence for a relatively niche gaming genre.
Rollback netcode has been a successful feature in indies like Skullgirls and Them’s Fightin’ Herds, but now bigger studios such as Arc System Works and SNK are implementing this feature into their games. Maybe the next Street Fighter or Tekken will follow in their footsteps. Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax will unfortunately not have it, however.
Thanks to the arguably better online functionality, more players are likely to stick with the game longer than previous The King of Fighters entries. Unfortunately, it won’t feature crossplay (other than PS4 and PS5) at launch.
