Street Fighter V’s matchmaking had many issues and over the last few months, Capcom have been trying to resolve them all. Most recently the title received a mix of matchmaking and balance changes.
Street Fighter V is a game that didn’t have it easy. Trying to fill the shoes of its predecessor Street Fighter IV was no easy task. Upon release, the title was a mess, but now four years later it’s finally the game it was meant to be from the start. The title’s matchmaking suffered a lot mainly due to the netcode which caused lag, desync and various errors. Most commonly one player would lag behind during online play, while the other user wouldn’t experience anything of the sort. This ruined the game for many and has been a major concern within the already shrinking online community.In February there was an attempt to resolve those problems with an adjustment to the netcode.
We hope you're enjoying #SFVCE and thank you for all the support!A netcode adjustment has been made to the game and is available now for all players.We ask that you send your feedback to @SFVServer. Please enjoy and look forward to #CPT2020 #SFL2020 #IntelWorldOpen starting soon! pic.twitter.com/r6DirOrqUn
— Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) February 19, 2020
Yoshinori Ono, the producer of the series asked fans to send their feedback on whether the patch was successful. Judging by the events that followed it didn’t work for all the players.
Another update was promised a week ago, with Capcom saying they’ve taken all the feedback into account.
Hey there fighters! The #SFV team has taken your feedback with the online matchmaking and are making adjustments in an upcoming update. We will be releasing the details on Mar 24 when the update is scheduled to go live. Thanks for all your feedback and support! pic.twitter.com/jduvXv4e91
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) March 19, 2020
The company finally delivered and this update looks like a massive one, giving players a good idea of what was changed and why.
Hey Fighters! A new update is now live for #SFV players.This update includes adjustments to matchmaking settings for Ranked/Casual matches based on the response speed and distance from opponents, which improves the quality of 5-bar matches.Info : https://t.co/ysAA4ASmOL
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) March 24, 2020
These will apply to both casual and ranked matches, while the battle lounge will still depend on each player’s individual connection. Capcom also added a new icon which will indicate whether a connection is poor or good.
There is also a full guide on how to open your router ports if you’re still experiencing issues after the update. Players will now be matched based on the distance between them and their response times, so searching for a casual and ranked should be a much better experience from now on. Aside from the technical part, the update also introduced a whole lot of changes to numerous characters. Some get general tweaks to their attacks, while others are much more affected. You can check out the full list on Capcom’s website.
There’s also the Capcom Pro Tour: 2020 Premier Pass which will give players access to upcoming skins, stages and more. Support for Street Fighter V was rumored to end in 2020, with the company possibly setting its sight on a potential new title. There haven’t been any recent announcements regarding that so it's safe to assume that the game will still receive support at least until the end of the 2020 season. Sadly we probably won't be seeing any new characters during that time.
To end it on a brighter note, Street Fighter V was one of the two games (the other being Rocket League) approved by the International Olympic Committee. As a result the Intel World Open was about to take place right before the start of the Tokyo Olympics. While the Olympics themselves were postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus, there's still hope for Street Fighter V as the tournament can go online even in the worst-case scenario.
