BlazBlue Centralfiction Steam player count reached an all-time high after the rollback netcode test began

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (publication date: 2021-12-07 14:51 JST)

Arc System Works began the “Rollback Public Test” for the Steam version of BlazBlue Centralfiction (BBCF) on December 6 (PST) and the concurrent player count reached an all-time high for the game.

BBCF is a 2D fighting game developed by Arc System Works. The game first launched in arcades back in 2015, with the PS3/PS4 versions following in October of 2016. The Steam version came out later in April 2017. It features over 35 characters and serves as the ending to the Azure Saga.

The Rollback Public Test is currently taking place in order to test out the implementation of rollback netcode, which is a technology used to partially circumvent the issues found in conventional delay-based online matches such as input delay and lag. And this Rollback Public Test seems to have triggered the sudden surge of players.

According to data from SteamDB, the number of concurrent players started to increase after the announcement of rollback netcode support and exceeded 4,700 at around 5 p.m. on December 6 (PST). The concurrent player count prior to the announcement was around 100 to 200, which means the number increased by around 24 times or more, far surpassing the previous peak concurrent player count of 1,031 recorded back when the Steam version first launched.

For comparison, GUILTY GEAR XX ACCENT CORE PLUS R and THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002 UNLIMITED MATCH also saw a sudden rise in players when rollback netcode was implemented. However, BBCF has seen an even larger increase in numbers.

BBCF is currently 50% off on Steam ($39.99 → $19.99). Anyone who owns the Steam version of BBCF can participate in the Rollback Public Test. There’s currently an issue where an application error will occur while using the game’s search feature due to “an overwhelming number of players online.” Workarounds to this issue can be found on the Steam forum.

The official implementation of rollback netcode is scheduled to take place in February 2022. Incidentally, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle will also support rollback netcode in 2022.