After releasing Lab Coat Android 21 and a balance patch with no communication on its future, Dragon Ball FighterZ will receive next-generation upgrades and rollback netcode. After the EVO 2022 top eight event, Bandai Namco and Dragon Ball FighterZ producer Tomoko Hiroki took the stage. Through a translator, she announced next-generation versions of the popular fighter were coming soon and rollback netcode along with it.
The announcement came after the grand finals, which ran late into the early Sunday morning hours. No trailer or footage was released of the native next-generation versions. The announcement mentions rollback netcode will only be coming to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PC versions of the game. Upgrade paths will also be coming for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users when these updates release.
During the brief announcement, producer Tomoko Hiroki announced that no future characters, content, or balance patches would be coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Since Dragon Ball FighterZ’s launch in 2018, rollback netcode has been a highly requested feature. With the game’s frantic three versus three action, delay-based netcode caused many issues for players trying to fight others online.
The lack of rollback netcode became a focal point of the community during the pandemic. With offline events canceled, online tournaments struggled to satisfy the community due to the delay-based netcode impacting player performance.
Earlier this year, Lab Coat Android 21 was launched and immediately became the game’s best character. After months of community tournament bans, Bandai Namco released a patch with slight nerfs to her abilities and adjustments for the rest of the cast, but with no mention of addressing netcode criticism was mentioned, making the EVO announcement a surprise to the community.
Thus far, EVO 2022 has featured several fighting game announcements, such as rollback netcode coming to Samurai Shodown, a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Arcade 1up official rerelease, and Skullgirl’s next character reveal.
