Last year, publisher Warner Bros. Games shut down its platform fighter MultiVersus after its open beta period ended. While development was relatively quiet for several months after that, it was eventually announced last month that MultiVersus will finally have its full launch in May. The developers at Player First Games then started to announce new features and content, including the new NHL Face-Off event that’s scheduled for April 14th. Today, the team revealed its first blog post ahead of the May launch detailing many of the online and netcode changes coming to MultiVersus. It should be great news for fans of the fighter hoping to take their talents into an online arena.
MultiVersus Details Netcode and Online Changes
The developers claim that MultiVersus netcode “has been rebuilt from the ground up” since the game went dark after the open beta period. During the beta, the netcode was server-based, meaning that animations would sometimes feel off depending on how far away you were from the server. If you didn’t have solid ping it was even worse, sometimes making MultiVersus feel unplayable online.ย
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The updated netcode now uses rollback netcode that’s been “tailor-made for MultiVersus.” Generally, rollback netcode is the standard most fighting game fans want nowadays, so it’s good to see MutliVersus take this route. However, it’s important to note that because MultiVersus incorporates modes like 2v2 or Free-for-All matches with several players onscreen at once, the team is using its own bespoke netcode to ensure it’s up to the platform fighter’s demands. There are a ton of technical details the team delves into, but the gist is that your online play should feel much smoother when MultiVersus officially launches.
On top of the changes to responsiveness, the team is also using the new netcode to improve matchmaking. Because the previous system was server-based, the game needed to match you with someone who had a similar ping as you. The new netcode should make it much easier for players to seamlessly match up with players who aren’t as close to the server, opening matchmaking up to a wider playerbase and hopefully, bringing down the wait times. Of course, this all remains a work in progress, so Player First Games will continue to tweak its netcode even after the game launches. That said, this definitely seems like a great first step for the developer as it tries to make MultiVersus the best online platform fighter it can.
MultiVersus is set to launch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms on May 28th. Remember, if you’re a hockey fan, the NHL Face-Off game takes place on April 14th. Like when Nickelodeon takes over NFL games, it should be a ton of fun.
