EVO Lounge live show to include reveals from Capcom and more

By Jesse Lennox August 1, 2022

The EVO Lounge live show on August 5-6 will feature new reveals from top fighting game developers and publishers such as Arc System Works, WB Games, and Capcom.

EVO is the largest fighting game tournament of the year, hosting thousands of participants fighting it out against one another for the top prize. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the event and the first live event since Sony purchased the company in 2021. This year will feature top players competing in games such as Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and more.

Ryu performs a special move in Street Fighter 6. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Evo Lounge is a new live show that will cover all the new and exciting announcements made during the event. It will be hosted by a rotating series of top players and commentators to keep viewers up to date on brackets, host interviews, and reveal new content from developers. While we don’t know what types of announcements are planned as of now, we do know that Arc System Works, Warner Bros. Games, Capcom, SNK, and Bandai Namco Entertainment will be making reveals.

New announcements and reveals are not unexpected at EVO. Previous events have often been home to new character and game reveals from the biggest fighting game developers looking to capitalize on the largest fighting game event of the year. The most likely thing we’re likely to see is undoubtedly new content from the upcoming Street Fighter 6, such as a new character or even more details on the brand new World Tour mode.

Warner Bros. Games will also likely announce something new for their recent crossover fighter Multiversus, but we’ll have to wait until the actual event to know for sure. Regardless, Evo Lounge shows that this time of year still will be the most exciting time of year for fighting game fans.

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The real winners of Evo 2022? Crossplay and rollback netcode

evo 2022 rollback netcode crossplay announcemenets explained dragon ball fighterz

If a game developer did not tease a new game at Evo 2022, it most likely confirmed the addition of crossplay and rollback netcode to its fighting game. As announced during the fighting game tournament, recent fighting game hits like The King of Fighters XV and Guilty Gear Strive will expand their audience with crossplay support, while even games that came out years ago are getting improved rollback netcode for online play.
SNK’s Samurai Shodown and the current-gen versions of Dragon Ball FighterZ, will get rollback netcode in 2023, several years after their respective launches. Over the weekend, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax got rollback netcode as well, and upcoming fighting games in the pipeline like Street Fighter 6 have it too. It might sound like technical jargon if you're not a fighting game aficionado, but it's the kind of announcement that makes die-hard fans cheer.
Following Evo 2022, it’s clear that developers who aren’t adding rollback netcode and crossplay to their fighting games are behind the times and their games won’t have the same appeal as the countless others that are taking the proper steps to improve.

Crossplay and rollback netcode explained
For years, fighting game fans called for games to implement crossplay and swap out delay-based netcode for rollback netcode. But what exactly do all of those terms mean?
Crossplay is an easy-to-understand boon for any online title. Players want to play and compete with their friends no matter their preferred gaming platform. This sentiment is true for fighting games, and this approach ensures that the hardcore community won’t feel tied to one platform out of necessity. Implementing the necessary online infrastructure and account systems to support crossplay is a tall task for developers, but it’s a challenge that studios like SNK and Arc System works are clearly OK with undertaking to maintain their communities. Still, those cross-platform connections mean nothing if the netcode isn’t good.
The type of netcode a video game uses determines how it handles networking and connectivity online. In the fighting game genre, quick response times are very important, and desynchronization during online play can determine whether or not someone will win or lose. Historically, many developers used delay-based netcode for their online fighting games.

Gaming

Evo 2022: How to watch, what to expect

Chun-Li in her classic outfit in Street Fighter 6.

After two years of being confined to online competitions thanks to COVID-19, Evo is back with a physical event and accompanying livestream. With Sony's purchase of the tournament and a new general manager in Combo Breaker Director Rick "The Hadou," this year's event promises to be a proper return to form.

PlayStation Tournaments - Evo Lounge Trailer

Gaming

Street Fighter 6 director reveals World Tour mode’s true purpose

A player stands in Metro City's Times Square equivalent in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

While Street Fighter 6’s traditional Fighting Ground experience made a solid first impression at Summer Game Fest, its significantly more ambitious World Tour mode is still shrouded in mystery. We briefly got a look at this ambitious mode during the game's State of Play trailer. We see what appears to be a player-created character explore Metro City and other locations from a third-person perspective, breaking boxes and getting into fights with the people he meets.
In the press release for Street Fighter 6, Capcom describes World Tour mode as a "single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar." While Capcom isn't revealing more about the mode's moment-to-moment gameplay just yet, I spoke with Game Director Takayuki Nakayama at Summer Game Fest Play Days and learned how World Tour is emblematic of Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 the premier entry point to the fighting game genre.
Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer
Finding World Tour's Purpose
In World Tour, players will explore Metro City and other iconic Street Fighter locales with a player-created avatar. Nakayama hopes this experience will strengthen Street Fighter 6's appeal to those who aren't already diehard fans of the series or genre.
"World Tour is a completely different mode that delivers a completely different experience than the traditional fighting," he said. "Even if someone's not a hardcore fan of fighting games, we wanted to incorporate things to make people become fans of Street Fighter outside of the traditional fights."
World Tour certainly looks unlike anything the Street Fighter series has done before. Still, Nakayama hopes that World Tour players will learn more about the world and characters of Street Fighter along the way and fall in love with fighting games as a whole."We want players to dive into this mode and be able to learn how to love fighting games through the things that you do during the journey of World Tour," Nakayama proclaimed. "There will also be opportunities to meet some of the fans' favorite characters, like Ryu and Chun-Li, through World Tour. We want to provide an experience where players can learn more about those characters' backstories and discover what kind of people they are within Street Fighter 6."

World Tour is one of Street Fighter 6's three main pillars, the others being the standard Fighting Ground mode and the multiplayer-focused Battle Hub. He commented how it's always hard to tell how much is enough to put in a game for fans, especially following Street Fighter V's rocky reception at launch due to a lack of content. However, he hopes World Tour provides enough to negate that criticism.
"We were definitely aware of some of the criticism that we faced with Street Fighter 5, and we want to continue to learn from those criticisms and make Street Fighter 6 a better product," he explained. "It's challenging to decide how much is enough for the users, but we continue to work very hard on it and strive to create something that will get appreciation from players."
Still, World Tour seems like it could occupy players for a long time while introducing them to the concept of fighting games and the world of Street Fighter. That's not too shabby of an addition when Street Fighter 6's core fighting game mechanics are already fantastic. And Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 one of the most approachable fighting games ever can be seen outside of World Tour mode.
Everyone is here to fight
During our discussion, Nakayama constantly reiterated that he wants Street Fighter to be something that can entertain and entice those who've never played a fighting game before. Part of the developer's method for making Street Fighter 6 more approachable and accessible is the addition of the Modern Control Type, which allows players to execute flash combos with simple button presses.