You'd think in this era of 100-player battle royales there'd be better online infrastructure for a genre defined by matches with only 2 people.

Fighting games lore-"Can we just get a functional product???"

nailed it on what needs to change. Especially with next gen the excuses for not having roll back netcode, crossplay and other features fighting games need now are quickly becoming non negotiables. Keep pushing this max. Hopefully the big companies notice this and make these changes as core concepts for all fighting games going forward.

rollback and crossplay should be in every fighting game on launch. Atleast for the ones coming out now.

I love Tekken 7, but man the online is rough. The connection is good most of the time, but the overall structure of the online play is leagues behind something like MK11. It's so barebones, just match with people and play. You can't switch characters or stages with that person unless you go into a player match, load times are awful, etc. Really hoping the team focuses hard on the online play for Tekken 8.

Yeah, it's very frustrating to wait a lot for matches in almost all fighting games I play... Not only this, but some titles also has some extra bullshit like broken ugly lobbys, long ass loading screens, no indication of Wi-Fi players, no crossplay and no "Search for another match" option right after the end of another one! It's so exausting returning every time to training room/lobbys and watch lots of loading screens between matches online... You spend half of the time not playing the game. Edit: I updated the list of extra bullshit that I could remember, I guess there's more. XD

I love this fire the FGC has for the health of our games. We are getting better netcode after being vocal about it for a while and now with matchmaking, we are showing companies what's important for not only our enjoyment, but for the enjoyment of casuals who could be turned into regulars of those games with better matchmaking AND netcode!

Agreed with GGS's current system. I'm stuck between floors 8 and 9, and sometimes there are literally nobody on those floors. Have to go to floor 10 and get my ass handed to me nonstop. Good practice, though.

The only reason I dont boot up KoF as much is the match making in Ranked. I loved the game and learning it, but much like other fighting games, half of the time I'm not playing the game. It really is sad that for as much as fighting games are making progress, its still behind in basic online functions

I'm one of these people. My bestest friend in the whole wide world bought this game for me as a gift, knowing I was hyped as hell, and we've yet to play a single game together because he lives in another state. Thank you, SNK.

It did make me happy that you mentioned Pokken. Underated gem when it comes to the competitive scene.

thanks for discussing all this topics, it's more than just we need rollback

update 06/04/2022: is kof xv's matchmaking still broken? yes.

I'm glad you did mention Pokken because yeah, the speed you could get matches in that game was nuts. Interestingly, I'd say ARMS and the recently released Switch Sports also have shockingly good matchmaking. Yeah, of all companies to get matchmaking right, it's oddly Nintendo? Switch Sports isn't quite as good as the other two (oh egad I wish I could search for the next match in Chambara within the Chambara screen) but the netcode is oddly solid. I've been fighting people in China and it has been working (looks like Chambara slows down your attack animations to compensate for lag, the kind of thing that ONLY functions for that specific game). And yeah that's the entire point of Switch Sports. As you all saw, the offline experience is useless. Switch Sports is made ENTIRELY for the global ranked online play.

I feel like someone is going to make a Twitter account around this and I love it.

thanks so much for covering this Max

Tell me how mmos, mobas, arena shooters, battle royales, etc can get much more complex online infrastructure working fine to great while most 1v1 fighting games still suck ass. How in the world is that possible

Pokken's matchmaking still keeps this speed up to this day, even with its relatively low number of online players. The downside is we've reached a point where your rank basically doesn't even matter because the game is just trying to get you into a match as soon as possible with a limited player pool. Also, all this talk of Pokken is reminding me, I'd love to see a Rate the Super on Pokken DX's Burst Attacks! I love how over the top some of them are, like Croagunk's funny shadow clone super and Blastoise's mountain-destroying laser.

These kinds of videos are always very enjoyable to watch. And Im left thinking about how similar fighting games and shooters are even though they're completely different genres. Look at Halo Infinite's Matchmaking for example, after every match you have to go search for another game instead of being put into another one right away.

Can confirm the guilty gear thing. Bought the game a while back hesitated to play online tried going online a couple of months ago and could never find an opponents at my very noob level.

We need the online features to function. I can't travel to offline events as much as I want to just to play fighting games with my friends or with the FGC. Thanks for shining light on this issue.

You know what crazy, i got on today thinking I wasn't going to be able to play any ranked matches for KOFXV and I got three. But what I did differently is I went to the training room and for some reason matches came quickly for me. I don't know if it like that for any other fighting game but that was my experience today.

That's so funny that you brought up Pokken. I clicked on the first video from searching "Maximilian Dood Pokken Tournament" and within the first 30 seconds you were praising the matchmaking lol.

ARMS is also really good about getting you into fights quickly, although they aren’t as worried about skill level outside of Ranked.

pokken to me is a phenomenal game online-wise. I brought it around 1-2 years after it came out on switch, and even then, still got online matches every 10-20 seconds. not to mention it was practically lag-free, AND on the switch. that game is magical.

A Fighting Game without functioning matchmaking is like a car without wheels. It may be the best and fastest car with the best user experience of all time, but without wheels it's not going anywere. I don't want KOFXV to just die cause SNK left it without its damn wheels, the game is too good to die in such a stupid way. Also, I could've sworn I was the only one having trouble with matchmaking and thought it was something with my PC, but knowing it was just SNK fucking up the game this hard doesn't make me all that much happier. Am glad my PC's not problem tho lol

I'm glad you talked about this. Guilty gear had me hooked for the first 2 weeks, but then the loading times for getting into menus and the time it took to even get into a single match made me lose my patience. Dbfz also did this to me and caused me to stop playing way early. A cool lobby system is nice and all, but i still can't understand in this day and age why it takes 3 minutes to load basic stuff in fighting games.

I think part of the problem with online fighting games is how important frames are (or at least higher level makes them). In almost every other genre people can usually play with some lag and be okay, or maybe not even notice. But in fighting games, even that .1 second delay can make that safe move unsafe and cost you the match.

Not sure if is a thing. But in KOF XV if I search for "same region" founds matches faster than "any region". Don't know if the matchmaking is that broken that when you select any region it just look for people that also selected any region instead of everyone 😅 but it works for me. Ps. I live in Ireland and playing on PC

What he said about ggst is so true. I got it cuz i wanted to get good at fighting games and i was actually doing it, i get to floor 7 of the tower and it wuold take 30 minutes or more to find matches. Eventually i got to floor 8 but it wuold take way too long to play. At the end i didnt get good cuz i lost all motivations to play so i could never be able to understand how to play in actual matches and not in training.

So basically what matters is not only the gameplay itself, but all the usual online functionalities of ALL kinds matter too. I would love to see more games trying to be ONLINE fighting games, not merely fighting games with online mode. Imagine if your typical moba, team shooter or battle royale were missing any of features like proper matchmaking and playable netcode. Nobody would even bother. Fighting games do that thing, then die in a couple of weeks, months if they are lucky, and people are surprised what happened, instead of just realising, that FGs have terrible online services incapable of just sustaining regular gameplay in general. Take a look on games like Brawlhalla. You can think whatever you want about how it looks, feels and plays as a game, but what matters it's that it's free, has a playable netcode, actual ranked mode matchmaching with reasonable ELO-like system, and crossplay to every device you can come up with, including freaking mobile. And that's how it's bigger than the next 5 biggest fighters lumped together on steamcharts only, and THEN you have all the crossplay platforms on top of that.

Your enthusiasm for fighters is great!

I just wish for a simple MMR system like Starcraft 2 has had for a decade now, no lobbies or at least not the default, only a button "ranked" vs "unranked".

Would you return to pokken dx on switch now for maybe like an eigth of a streams time?

the game that made me realize how crazy this was was brawlhalla lmao, you play instantly and now you rematch instantly, you find new matches instantly, going from that to tekken is fuckin insane

It’s crazy to me that guilty gear +R has the most simple style of matchmaking, just a quick match lobby and opt-in/out of ranked is easy to play with people, but the double edge sword is that you have no idea if you are fighting a god or a newbie. But matches are fast sets of 2/3 games and you go back to the quick match lobby and fights another quickly as long as ppl are there. You can also play survival, MOM, and training mode while in that lobby to wait for matches. I haven’t had such a quick experience in any other fighter for getting matches going.

I mean I know my internet isn’t great but I literally get constant errors and when I do get a match it’s the same guy every time lmao it’s frustrating and makes me not wanna play online which sucks cuz I love the game which obviously everyone does so I hope they fix this

I recently haven't been able to play matches in Guilty Gear Strive, so I deleted it. No other game of mine is having online problems right now, but in Strive I can't ever connect to a duel station or connect to matches in most lobbies. I really wish we had better functioning online in fighting games!

Patiently waiting for Max's reaction on the new Street Fighter skins in Brawlhalla.

I literally had no idea that's been happening. I've totally been getting matches. This is actually the first I've heard of this.

If you want to see that "Woolie Interview" look for: How to Save Fighting Games - Castle Super Beast Animated

Guilty gear strive is so sad. I just want to hit quick match from the main menu and get paired with someone close to my level or join a simple lobby where winner stays and the rest spectate until your turn. What's so hard about that? What's funny is they had a much better system in dragonball fighterz and went backwards. The main issue with that game was trying to play against your friends. Just let me invite them easily no fancy bs.

I play KOF XV on latin america and I rarely wait more than 2 mins for a fight.

What do you think of playing vs AI only? I always enjoyed that since im a casual player.

This is true, i get people in USFIV (bought it on a sale) surprisingly fast, never thought i would enjoy a delay netcode title in 2022.

Wasn't even aware that there was a problem with the KOF matchmaking, I just thought nobody was playing, glad I was wrong haha

This why I stopped playing KOF I can never find anyone online I got tired of waiting 20 plus minutes

This is the reason I'm focusing my KOF XV videos on mods right now. It started as a curiosity and I ended up covering every good mod that gets released. If the matchmaking is broken, then let's enjoy offline in some way. It's really sad tho...

whats the song in the backround of the video?

Such an underrated topic that realy needs attention by the devs, especialy on smaller contries/playerbases

I know that Max says online in SCV was crap but I've had a blast there and don't really remember any shitty connection issues, at least here in Europe. But the matchmaking? Godlike. You could've looked for a new opponent right after your fight ended and were usually paired before the win animation stopped playing.

Apparently the way to get around the matchmaking in KOF is to *go to Training mode while waiting for a match?* I've seen people discuss this online. It seems to get you opponents far faster than standard matchmaking.

This also happened to samurai showdown. I was unable to really play the game.

I'm not a fighting game guy, but I love listening to this man. Yet I need someone to explain EVERYTHING to me

Hey max i have a question: Lets say marvel vs capcom 4 will come out and its the same game as 3 (just updated visuals etc) the core gameplay stays the same, no changes no gimmicks. The only thing different is that they kinda rework/change some characters Lets say instead of dmc3 dante its dmc5 dante. His gameplay stays the same with the quick changes of moves but the moves change. There are some familiar once like stinger for example put his moves and supers largely change. Same with other characters: iron man in a different armor (maybe modle prime), miles morales spiderman instead of peter parker (to ad his electric moves) and just in generell a large rewrok of the roster. Its familiar but different in a way Would you prefer a rewrokes roster over a new gimick? Or furthermore do you think that would be enough/needed?

I was a new player in KOF XV and I thought for sure my lower level was an issue to not getting a match of my skill level. It's assuring to hear it's a general issue but it's also very discouraging for me to actually put in the time to learn the game when the only way I can get a match is players exponentially higher than my skill level leaving me completely unable to practice or learn any mechanics. I imagine there's people who didn't miss the refund window like I did so I've been left with basically no pool at my level to advance.

One thing would be to look for possible matches before the current battle has ended

When you put out on multiple platforms. Crossplay is essential!

I just picked this game up and yeah I thought something was up with the online.. thanks for clarifying. Hopefully spring of 2023 when they implement crossplay into this game. All this bullshit will be fixed.. sticking with it! Great game!

One of the biggest reasons why I stopped playing KoF15 was yeah, I can't find anybody with the match making and if I did, it was against someone that felt like a pro level player who I had no chance against. Eventually I just got tired of waiting forever to find games and losing repeatedly without ever feeling like I was getting better.

Long post but... Sys Engineer with some thoughts... The more I think about this stuff, the more it feels like game devs really need to start diversifying their base with people from other areas of IT and software development. Maybe I'm off-base, not sure, but this has been going on for so long it's hard to imagine a mainline solution presenting itself unless they bring in more diverse technical talent. I know things always seem easier from a distance, but this is a fairly easy system to break down from a service delivery perspective. Technically complex? Sure, you need the code and design to back up the individual pieces, but just beyond that layer there should be a clear plan to really make it all cohesive. Hard to imagine it's a question of having the capital to make that possible... but it would really suck if that's the case. The fact that these people make video games professionally (fighting or otherwise) is not lost on me. I'm not a game dev. Maybe that's the point tho? Don't have to argue it much either, just look around. The biggest names in fighting games mess this up so consistently it has become the expectation. That's not how you do business. Would love to be a fly on the wall in some of their meetings (no company in particular) just to see how they manage projects, teams and really craft those ideas then execute on them.

It feels like the online of a lot of fighting games are designed by people who don't play online a ton or don't play other games from other genres a ton. Its like how arcsys always tries to emulate an arcade with their lobbies when the novelty of that wears off real quick if just want to get into a game. Like if the guy who made that played CoD or saw what TFH did we would at least have an option for a menu lobby

I thought that what the Network Beta was supposed to check and what not... How did they not get the matchmaking data from that??

Guilty Gear Strive is still pretty great if you're already on floor 10, just put in standby on training mode and you don't have to deal with the lobby and get matches pretty frequently, but being a lower level player absolutely must feel like hell, they're pretty much forced to go to floor 10 even though they're at floor 6 and will most likely get demolished up there.

FG executives should start to realize that a lot of games owe a huge part of their success to good user experience and accessibility. Granted the game needs to be also good, but that's usually not the issue with most modern fgs

The "of your skill level" is a part that isn't emphasized enough. Some games have great rollback and can run smooth across entire continents if not the world but are happy to pair some one who just bought the game against literal pros. Looking at you NRS.

What a struggle to get matches in KOF XV, fortunately I hope that when South Town gets released, Matchmaking won't be broken anymore

We also need WiFi filters! At the VERY LEAST WiFi indicators!

yeah fighting games really continue to be strange where it can thrive in one part of online but fk up another. it surprises me like another comment says where we have games like fortnite and apex that have large number of players but fighting games still struggle i mean overwatch and and call of duty games have had 8 to 12 player matches and it runs fine the whole time. i'm playing kof15, sf5, doa6 and mk11 all online atm i have gripes with all of them except doa6 funny enough and i tend to enjoy more because of it.

Downtime is the bane of all multiplayer centric experiences. One of the reasons I've actually recently fallen in love with Apex is you get into a game and you lose the drop fight and you're right back to main menu, you click search game and BAM are right back into a lobby in moments. Similarly it's why Escape from Tarkov boils my blood, sometimes. ESPECIALLY if you're playing with friends. Not only do you have to spend time re-gearing you're whole ass character, which can take a good minute if if you're trying to run certain things, but you also have to sit and wait for like 20-30 minutes, like if you die right off the rip to anything, while you're team does the thing they were there to do and survive; or they have to spend their time not playing the game by running as fast as possible to the nearest extract so they can get you back in. On top of all that, the matchmaking can several minutes after all of this prep to get you back into playing the game.

It's fairly straightforward just find me a match with somebody who's the closest to me and skill and location and then after a small amount of time if no matches are found expand the search to include people who are further away or who are of a greater or lesser skill. We don't need f****** rooms or floors or all this weird s*** just let me hit play and find somebody to play.

Me and my friend are fiending to play kofxv but are holding off till it's matchmaking is fixed

I just happen to notice something in fighting games, mainly because fighting games are the only P2P ("Peer to Peer") connection games that still exists today: I recently moved my computer (where I play) behind a network switch for house layout reasons, after that change it was crazy hard to get any fight online in fighting (KOFXV included) and then it clicked into me, this is like the old times when you played online, you'd give your IP to your friend and he couldn't connect to you (INCOMING connection) because you needed to port forward and do some network stuff in your router, but you could connect to him (OUTGOING connection) and start a game... So this happens only if you connect directly ("Peer to Peer" like most fighting games) and doesn't have a intermediary server doing the connection and handling the initial "network negotiation" between the players, like almost all other games that are not fighting games. That "network negotiation" that the servers and the matchmaking needs to make is nothing short of cheap, and it makes sense that is not a focus in fighting games unless you have a VERY strong monetization strategy (Street Fighter 5 anyone?) Guilty Gear Strive masks this issue with the lobby system (that's why you randomly can't connect to someone sometimes), if it where ONLY matchmaking it probably would be a long wait too, good that it has a lot of players. Project L (the riot game) has a strong focus on using servers, that means (and I hope) that it would have a strong and quick matchmaking thanks to that. Welp that's my guess at least, have fun and thanks for reading my long comment!

Thats it. Fighting games are truly about the competition, about self improvement and about overcoming the challenge. 15 years ago in 2007 I was studying abroad in South Korea. I had a huge crew of friends from all over the world. Internationals but also native Koreans, one big family. One of those good friends was from the US. He was older and more mature as teenage me and became something like a bigger brother to me. Someone could absolutely trust, get advise from and just have a good time with. We partied, we chilled and hung with our big crew of international and Korean friends every weekend until the break of dawn. Lots of hangovers and crazy stories. But one day we found an arcade. Since its Korea they got a huge arcade scene even still in 2007. They had a classic Street Fighter 2 Turbo machine. He suggested we get some coins and play. He asked me if I know how to play? I grew up on SF2 in the 90s and was confident, even cocky and told him its on. We both sat down, put in our coins and pressed our start buttons simultaneously. And was in for a rude awakening. He was a god. He was incredible with Ryu. I jump, perfectly timed anti air dp. I try to open him up, flawless footsies and not dropping a single combo. Consistent fireball pressure and dp in my face if I jump over. He didnt know how to play 3rd Strike and SF4 wasnt even released yet. He was an OG who was older than me. And I grew up in the 90s which meant he grew up during the golden arcade age in the US. He only knew how to play SF2 but was unparalleled in it. It was 2007 so just before SF4 came out and rebooted the age fighting games and completely resurrected the FGC. Funny how we were both two guys playing an old game in a Korean arcade to remember old times when we were just a year away from the biggest revival of fighting games and video games becoming total mainstream in general. Anyways, he was a beast. I couldnt take a single round of him. Got perfected half of the time. And had to get lucky to touch him. And I was a guy that knew fighting games growing up on SF2,3 Tekken3,4, Soul Calibur, Smash and many others. I was one of the best from where Im from. But compared to him I was a scrub. He beat me hundreds of times. I was stubborn. I was determined. I was passionate. I would not give up. would challenge him throughout a whole year over and over, it became a ritual and both of our thing. Every weekend we would hit up the arcade. Sometimes during the week when I run into him. I dont know how many coins I threw in that machine. “Another one” “Ah! This time I got you!” “One more time!” “This time I figured you out!” “Damn it!” He’d beat me consistently. And I mean kicking my ass in all ways, shapes and forms. Most of the weekends we would hang with our big international family of friends at our regular bars getting drunk and partying. Some nights him and me met some Korean cuties and sat down with them to drink, just having a good time. But I shit you not then the challenge called me and I’d tell my bro “its time”. And we ditch the girls and would head to the arcade to play some STREET FIGHTER II! Trust me, many guys thought we were crazy. They saw me and my bro meeting some beautiful Korean girls who looked like idols. The girls were into us too. But no, the challenge has called. He loved my persistence and wanted to keep his titles as undefeated. So he didnt throw me any bones. Instead of being a dick and saying he wont play anymore because he is scared to get that one loss someday he accepted the challenge every time. One, whole, year. Day after day. And me? I was just completely consumed with the desire to beat him. To get better at this game. To overcome this challenge. Get better. It was also a mirror Ryu vs Ryu. Then after 6 month or so I managed to take a round. My heart was pounding when I saw his life bar at just a pixel, every movement with surgical execution, observing his Ryu and see exactly what he is doing. I couldnt seal the deal and choked on the final round. Despair. I never forget the moment after almost a year when I finally beat him. I didnt realize how I got better. Imagine playing the same better player for months. I studied all his style, his small nuances in his decision making progress, his habits, his signature combos and moves. When I finally took two rounds from him I jumped across the arcade, stood on top of the stools and threw my fists in the air and screamed. Then I fell to the floor and rolled around like a lunatic. My bro whipped out his old phone (this was before smartphones) and filmed it all. I felt like I achieved something incredible something seemingly impossible to overcome. My bro and his unfathomable skill at this game he mastered for decades, being able to beat this even just once felt like besting a towering giant with sheer will power. What I realized years later is that I was basically labbing. Every time I player and I lost I learned something new. It made me better, gave me thick skin, developed my sense, my reaction, my execution. I learned the most important lesson for fighting games and frankly any sport or competition in life. You only get better if you lose. And if you keep losing you get better. As they say, the difference of a winner and a loser is the winner got back up on his feet one more time. We both went back home to our home countries. I ended up returning to Korea after studies for work because I fell in love with the country. He went back to the US to work. He probably got married, settled down and never played SF2 again. Its been about 15 years since we hung out. My life is very different. Im not the teenage boy I was back then and but in my 30s now. Older than the age my big bro was when we met. Living my life. But Im still play fighting games in my free time. And Im happy how gaming has become the norm now, not the unusual. Its completely mainstream now and fighting games go through another renaissance as we speak. This was a lengthy anecdote about my fighting game experiences. But I wanna say I totally agree with you. This same mentality of never giving up. It makes winners. When I play online fighting games now I have the same mentality. I make friends with players online and if they are better Im excited to try to beat them. Push myself. See how far I can go. This is how I become a better player and winning against someone finally after becoming better is one of the most rewarding experiences ever. Fight on, brotha.

Fighter z is one of those games that would be perfect with better online but the lag holds it back so much!

Ohhhhh so that's why we are still not able have a team south town trailer since April because of this....hopefully they will patch this in addition to the geeses team

I have stopped playing because I’m level 17 and can’t find a match for like a hour on pc and ps5

Pokken tournament dx is awsome. I even played a little bit in November and could find people decently fast with very good connections

So far MVC on A1UP is so lacking that it gives a good experience because of of the community on Discord. Not all of us are on Discord but a good bit of us are, we just get on line, host a lobby, get on discord and we play each other. Yaa it's lacking in regards to player base, match making searchings but it's very solid online and I haven't had an issue with finding games because of this small community.

Wait times are the main thing that kept me from really getting into Tekken 7. Like, searching for an opponent is one thing--I understand that finding a match takes time depending on region, connection, skill level, etc.--but there's so much unnecessary waiting before and after that. There are so many menus and loading screens and intro animations and victory animations and rematch timers... Just let me play the game!

We knew this topic was coming.

Ranked vs in mk11 still a damn clownshow. Cant decline wifiplayers after all these years

Thank god max is talking about it, maybe now snk will do something.

As a new KOF 15 player, I’ve effectively dropped the game because of the matchmaking. Working a 9 to 5, the last thing I want to spend an hour or two doing is trying to find maybe 2 or 3 matches where I’ll probably get blown up, and then call it a night. No one has the patience for that lol.

Another thing every fighting game needs is infinite rematches or a mode where you can infinitely rematch people. A part of why sfv is so unsatisfying to play for me is because I can only play someone once and it's done. I never get the chance to learn anything or adapt or see my opponent adapt to me.

Dude I was super excited to play KOF XV after I felt a need for a break from ssb and dbfz, and….I can barely play it except sometimes on the weekends, because I can’t find a match. It sucks. If, and I mean IF the problem truly is not enough people playing it, I think crossplay needs to become standard. Because I can’t play a game I can’t find matches in, let alone get better at the game.

I remember when Tekken 7 first came out, there were times when I could enter a lobby, but I couldn't play anyone. I couldn't even leave the game, the lobby maker actually had to kick me out so I could leave.

while he was saying all these things all I could think about was brawlhalla. Rollback netcode, crossplay, free, fast matchmaking, and ranked (at least for me) only people on my level. Overall it's a great online experience in my opinion.

Every time we get a conversation from Uncle Max about some issues that are pervasive in fighting games, all I can think is that Riot’s Project L is gonna force every other developer to wake the fuck up.

I've pretty much given up searching for a fighting game I enjoy the game play of in favour of looking for one that isn't miserable to play online and it's a real struggle.

Man, everytime someone name drops Pokken (which is sadly not often) I'm just reminded how much I miss that game... COME ON NINTENDO/BAMCO, GIVE US POKKEN TOURNAMENT 2!!!!!

I legitimately wish I'd never bought KOF XV on Steam day one. I spent all that time in the lab trying to learn the mechanics and fundamentals since I'd never given KOF it's fair shake in the past. Then I tried hopping online afterward, only to be met with almost no lobbies and those that I did find had subpar rollback imo. At this point I'm gonna go back to Strive or Tekken 7 while I wait for SFVI. Pretty sure I'm not buying another SnK fighter after this.

KOF has to be the most frustrating experience as a beginner. The tutorials are, like most fight games, pathetic. They never really tell you how to deal with situations, just what the buttons do. The mission mode makes no sense: do they really think beginers are going to benefit from them? Do beginners really need to learn combos over fundamentals? But the matchmaking is a mess. Upwards of thirty minutes waiting to be matched with someone who turns out to be beyond my skill level to the point the experience is just soul destroying. I don't expect to win, but at least match me against someone reasonably close to me in _ranked_! Someone who is 0-30 is not the equal of someone that's been playing for months possibly years but has the same w/l percentage. Honestly it's about time fight game developers, and the communities they pander to, stepped outside their bubbles, took a look around and saw what actually works. Unlike this game's netcode. it's rolled back to the point no one can be found

Honestly. I WANT to play Guilty Gear Strive, I really do, but the way the lobbies work, man. I don't want to deal with it. Takes way too long and it feels like 50% of the time, I'm not PLAYING the game, I'm playing the lobby. I just want to play the game, and I can't. Its frustrating. I'm very hopeful Project L will have good matchmaking because it is Riot Games and they know what they're doing when it comes to that (as we know from their other titles), so it'll probably be my main fighting game when it comes out.

I’ve been extremely lucky, I always get matches without a problem on PS5. But, I have to wait a little longer since I put my options to play only against 2+ connections. Before that, didn’t waited at all.

in yugioh master duel the longest i've waited after a game to go to the next game took 5 seconds. Every other game search takes me 2

Crossplay might help with wait times and finding people with stronger connection because holy f%*k is there a lot of people with lag. The thing about rollback netcode on KOFXV, anything above 3 frames of rollback is stressful. Anti-airs become difficult to land, opponents will have the death cry's yet still move around, footsies become less reliable and grabs are difficult to tech. Say goodbye to any Ash players trying to land install combos lol and say hello to unga bunga style.

Last 3 sessions, no games. Love it, makes me learn, think, best fighting game ive played in a long time. But i cant actually play it

I usually wait around 1-3 minutes in a match for kof and that was today. one time it was 6-10 mins, then I proceeded to get destroyed and thought that was enough for today

Tekken 7 matchmaking is being terrible for me. Not only it takes so much time to get into a match, but i mostly fighting the same guys over and over again.