They’re going to fix the lobby system!
Arc System Works has announced that its upcoming fighting title, Guilty Gear Strive, has been delayed to June 11th, 2021. I know this is not the news you wanted to hear. Especially after the enjoyable (mostly) beta.
「Important announcement regarding #GuiltyGearStrive」 pic.twitter.com/siP46ketuE
— Arc System Works America (@ArcSystemWorksU) March 4, 2021
After coming off a recent beta and following it up with a survey, it looks that ARCSys is paying close attention to the feedback. As cited, they’re going to address the lobby system, which was a sore point from just about everyone I had spoken to during and after the beta concluded. Outside of that, and the damage scaling being completely too high, I thought the demo was great—especially the netcode, which has become (again) a heated topic amongst the fighting game community.
During this delay, I hope that ARCSys is considering adding cross-play between the PlayStation 4 & 5 versions with the PC. Simply releasing a fighting game onto the PC and leaving it in an isolated pool is a great way to kill the game off sooner than later. I was quite vocal about this while filling out the Guilty Gear Strive beta survey, along with the lobby system. Seriously, crossplay for the PC MUST happen.
This delay, however, does make it the second time that Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed. Originally scheduled for a December 2020 release, it was delayed until April 9th, 2021. This delay will take the eagerly awaited fighter into the Summer 2021 season, which isn’t a bad time to be released. Though, I’m not going to lie. I was looking forward to this. The first Guilty Gear game that I’m going to take seriously? Had an amazing fun time during the beta? Hell, I’m still going through withdraws.
I wonder if this means we’ll see another beta before the release date. Guilty Gear Strive will be released this June 11th, 2021 for the PS4, PS5, and PC. C’mon ARCsys, give us that PC cross-play.