Guilty Gear Strive Delayed Until June 11

The most recent title in the long-running fighting game series Guilty Gear Strive was delayed to June 11. Following the recent open beta testing at the end of February, the Arc System Works development team has decided that they need more time to work on the game lobbies and server stability before the full release of the game.

The game was originally scheduled to launch on April 9, but the open beta ran into several complications, revealing issues with the current state of the game that needed to be fixed prior to launch. The main issue affecting players was the stability of the server.

The first two days of the beta, reserved for influencers and pre-order players respectively, were mostly stable. However, after the beta was opened to all players, the servers ran into serious stability issues, leading to outages for the next few days.

Based on the feedback Arc System Works received after the open beta test, the main issue on the minds of most players was the new lobby system. Most fighting games only use a regular menu system, but recent Arc System Works games like Guilty Gear Xrd, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Granblue Fantasy Versus have used interactive avatar-based lobby systems.

While the lobby systems for those games were somewhat divisive, reception from Guilty Gear’s lobbies – Strive – has been universally negative. Most fans say that the lobbies are a step back, aesthetically, from previous titles. Another common complaint is that it can be difficult to know what is going on and which player you are about to face.

Fortunately, Arc System Works has decided not to release the game in its current state and instead take a couple more months to polish the game. The full statement from the development team on the Guilty Gear Strive delay can be found below.