At first, it was a bit hard to factually confirm SNK's stream of announcements, given the context of April 1st and the absurdity of some of the revelations — rollback netcode for King of Fighters XIII as well as Samurai Showdown, and KOF '96 antagonist Goenitz crashing into the previously announced King of Fighters XV roadmap (and for free, too). But it all happened, and some of the scheduled dates are earlier than we expected.
The publisher first locked onto the release date of the previously announced character Kim Kaphwan, who was announced as a returning character for KOF XV back in November, and revealed that Kim will be smashing through the roaster this Tuesday, April 4th.
Meanwhile, Sylvie Paula Paula, who was part of the KOF XIV starting roster, is still heading toward her summer release as planned. What we got here are a few more seconds of her new in-game model loudly introducing herself with a megaphone in her iconic Kawaii persona modeled after the real singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
As for the returning Goenitz, he will also be joining Paula this summer, but unlike her, he won't require players to purchase any DLC packs or season passes.
Rollback Netcode probably needs no introduction to fighting gamers, but for the uninitiated, it is a bit like a psychic crystal ball for online fighting games. It predicts players' moves based on their input rather than waiting for the input to be translated into the game, greatly alleviating latency and lag issues, and Samurai Showdown will be getting this magical update this spring.
King of Fighters XIII will not only receive a rollback netcode, but also a new version with a major overhaul called The King of Fighters XIII Global Match. This version will be released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch (previously available on PC, Android, PS3, and Xbox 360) at some point in the future.
The new sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves is apparently progressing well, as the announcement trailer teased the game with a new illustration and said that the game is "furiously in development".
Last but not least, KOF XV will also host its crossplay open beta test this spring, which will add crossplay functionality to all platforms (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC). An open beta test for KOF XIII: Global Match will also take place on PS5 in early summer.