The pandemic has led to a shift in fighting games. Demand for better online came into focus and began spreading among hardcore players, which saw a shift in some companies’ online policies. Older fighting games like Killer Instinct and Skullgirls started to get resurences, and Skullgirls is even getting new content. As Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s support came to an end, the stage is set for new crossover platform fighters to take its spot. The EVO tournament series was bought by Sony, and some of its founders are working on a League of Legends fighting game. Even genre giants Mortal Kombat 11 and Street Fighter 5 got longer support than their developers planned.
Even though offline competition is still a gray area, the future looks bright, and the FGC won’t have to wait very long to live it. Next year seems prepared to be the culmination of everything that fighting games have been working toward, with a number of exciting releases that have rollback and more primed to launch. That’s not getting into the expected or ongoing fan and indie projects. Assuming COVID doesn’t delay anything, 2022 should be the best year fighting games have had in a long time.
Major Fighting Games Releasing in 2022
A wave of betas and announcements hit the fighting game community in the past couple of months. The second King of Fighters 15 open beta ran on the same weekend that DNF Duel had a beta, alongside the reveals of rollback netcode, mechanics, and release date. KoF15 is due out in a couple of months, and DNF Duel will be released in summer 2022. Going with open betas was the right move for both of these games, as they already have people clamoring for more. The King of Fighters 15 has been declared a return to form by longtime fans, and DNF Duel offers more madness then the average modern fighter thanks to the efforts of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 developer Eighting.
Those are far from the only fighting games coming out in 2022, and DNF Duel isn't the only one coming from Arc System Works. Atlus has decided to re-release ASW's Persona 4 Arena Ultimax on modern hardware, to the surprise of many. It's not clear if there will be any netcode changes, but the game will be updated to its previously arcade-exclusive final patch. A couple of other games expected to come out in 2022 include Rumbleverse, the arena-fighter battle royale from Iron Galaxy and Epic Games; and MultiVersus, a platform fighter collecting the many properties Warner Bros. owns. These are big-name titles, but they represent more than just exciting collaborations.
The Impact of 2022 Trends on Fighting Games
Rumbleverse and MultiVersus intend to make big strides. Rumbleverse is not the first melee-focused battle royale, but it is the most concerned with emulating a fighting game. To that end, it's the hope of Iron Galaxy and Epic that Rumbleverse will bring together fighting game and battle royale audiences. There's a good chance that the Killer Instinct veterans at Iron Galaxy hope some of its success can trickle back down to the regular fighting game community.
Meanwhile, MultiVersus is rising to replace the opening left by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sporting a free-to-play model akin to the wildly successful Brawlhalla, it's clear no expense was spared in setting this game up for success. These two titles, along with Riot's Project L fighting game - whenever it comes out - should bring new success to the fighting game genre that has struggled to build up wider communities.
Next year may also crystallize rollback netcode as a permanent fixture in fighting games. Fans of the wider genre have been waiting for this push for a long time. Aside from the unknown that is Persona 4 Arena, every fighting game announced to be coming out soon will use rollback netcode. Even older titles like BlazBlue: Centralfiction and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle are getting rollback updates in early 2022. This should extend to the next titles released by genre leaders Capcom and Bandai Namco, as the online landscape of fighters is getting more competitive.
Potentially Massive Fighting Game Events Could Come in 2022
Even with all of the confirmed happenings of 2022 and their impact, there's still more hype in the FGC for things that could happen. Street Fighter 6 has been rumored for a while, and was supposedly rebooted after negative focus tests. Now that Street Fighter 5 has finished adding new content, everyone is looking at Capcom Cup 8 in February for the long-awaited announcement. Street Fighter 5 improved its reputation among players in its last two seasons, but those who dropped off years ago would really like to see a new Capcom fighting game.
The sheer potential of 2022 isn't limited to unreleased games, either. Dragon Ball FighterZ and Granblue Fantasy Versus are continuing to get new content, with Granblue adopting a new pricing model. DBFZ's development was officially over, so the sudden announcement of Android 21 (Lab Coat) as a new character has the community buzzing with questions. Also abuzz are the competitive scenes for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Melee, which are receiving their first official tournament circuit courtesy of a collaboration between Panda Global and Nintendo. This is unprecedented behavior from Nintendo, especially considering Melee is part of this series.
Even if all of the releases and potential that 2022 offers are not to someone's liking, they may still be interested to hear that rollback netcode is being developed for a Nintendo Switch emulator. That would bring delay-based Switch games into the rollback revolution sweeping the emulated arcade, Dreamcast, and retro console scenes. A lot of good for fighting games happened in 2021, and 2022 looks even brighter.