Guilty Gear Strive: Sign up for the closed beta now

Ahead of Guilty Gear Strive's release later this year, developer Arc System Works has announced a closed beta for the anime fighter.

Announced back at EVO 2019, Guilty Gear Strive is the follow-up to 2015’s Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator set to be released later this year.

The franchise is one of the biggest anime fighting games around, alongside the likes of Under Night In-Birth and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

Before Guilty Gear Strive releases, developer Arc System Works has announced a closed beta will take place on PlayStation 4 between 16-19th April.

The beta will feature seven characters in total, including Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, May, Axl Low, Faust, Chip Zanuff and Potemkin.

So how do you sign up? You can register to take part here before 6th April, and if you’re chosen by the beta overlords, you’ll be sent an email from 12-13th April to confirm.

It was also recently confirmed the full release of Guilty Gear Strive will use a rollback netcode for online play, instead of the delay-based netcode which is widely considered as outdated.

Delay-based netcodes intentionally delays your inputs so it can match what your opponent will see, meaning it can impede on your ability to react quick enough during online matches.

Rollback netcode meanwhile makes significant improvements for a smoother experience. Check out the comprehensive piece on Ars Technica for a full explanation on the differences, as it’s exceedingly complex.

It’s certainly a step forward though for a more stabilised experience online with fighting games, which might encourage other major franchises to follow suit.

The Guilty Gear Strive beta however will utilise the delay-based netcode still, with the rollback netcode still in development.

Guilty Gear Strive releases on PlayStation 4 in 2020.