Ed Boon Teases Possible NetherRealmCup & Adding Rollback To Older Titles

The discussion around Netcode in fighting games has become a very hot topic. Especially now during this global pandemic of Covid-19, online play is extremely vital to competitive gaming. Two weeks ago during the Japanese Fighting Game Publisher Roundtable, Ed Boon took to twitter and shared some golden nuggets of wisdom.

Rollback code is tough but necessary in fighting games.
— Ed Boon (@noobde) August 1, 2020

This was interpreted as a slight dig at Japanese developers whom have been reluctant to the idea of Rollback netcode implementation. Some Japanese developers have jumped on the GGPO train, but many haven’t just yet. But this wasn’t the last of his tweets that day. He thanked his team for doing the hard work (allegedly CRUNCH) to add rollback to Mortal Kombat XL

The @NetherRealm tech team did an amazing job at putting roll-back code into Mortal Kombat XL. Made all the difference in the world.
— Ed Boon (@noobde) August 1, 2020

Another gem he dropped was the idea of a NetherRealm Cup similar to CapcomCup but more expansive.

After Covid… I'd love to do a NetherRealm Cup… including all of our most recent games.

– MK9
– Injustice 1
– MKX
– Injustice 2
– MK11
— Ed Boon (@noobde) August 2, 2020

Ed Boon also tweeted the possibility of having adding rollback to older titles:

But if Covid lasts for years, then we might have to add rollback code to MK9 and Injustice1 😉#GoodGamePeaceTFout
— Ed Boon (@noobde) August 2, 2020

I'd be afraid to run into Batgirl players on rollback/GGPO pic.twitter.com/RGGMFI3cpC
— Ed Boon (@noobde) August 2, 2020

We’re unsure of the likelihood of this happening, but given how unpredictable 2020 has been, anything is possible at this point. Also, Covid-19 seems to be here to stay in the US for quite some time, so there’s a high chance that Mortal Kombat 9 and Injustice could get retrofitted with GGPO. We’ll have to wait and see how serious he was about this in the months to come.