The Super Smash Bros. community is anxiously awaiting an announcement from Masahiro Sakurai regarding the next Smash title. Kirby Air Riders is done, which means development has likely begun. Right?
Well, we only have old Sakurai quotes and leaks to go off of at this point, but I don’t think Smash 6 is much of a stretch. It’s more a matter of when.
In the past, I’ve said that we need this new Smash to revitalize the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scene, which has grown a bit stale lately. I think a new game could attract new-gen players and bring back bored pros, bringing more attention to the grassroots Smash eSports scene.
However, without rollback netcode, I think Smash will continue as a niche title on the outskirts of the FGC rather than see meaningful growth.
I have always loved Soul Calibur. At some past Evo events, I heard that Soul Calibur had small side tourneys, so I was excited to check that out when I went to Evo Las Vegas 2025.
Soul Calibur was gone.
After asking around a bit, I learned that the Soul Calibur scene is just… non-existent. There weren’t enough players interested to even host a side event. At least according to what I heard.
The culprit? It had no rollback netcode.
Rollback netcode ensures action inputs are instant, hiding network lag and keeping gameplay accurate and competitive. In fast-paced fighting game matches, the goal is to read opponents and then rapidly react to their actions. These mind games require accuracy, or there is no competitive integrity.
Soul Calibur’s recent games rely on delay-based netcode instead. The laggy, unreliable and inaccurate online matches are what many feel led to its demise. There was no way to effectively connect, compete and practice with people around the world, something that has helped games like Street Fighter 6 flourish.
At Evo Las Vegas 2026, I asked champion Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II how the FGC became such a global melting pot decades ahead of mainstream events like the World Cup, which went viral on TikTok for bringing cultures together.
“It’s because of online play,” MenaRD said. “You already experience all cultures through online play; you’re competing against people you don’t even know. You judge them based on skill alone. That’s why we are already used to it by the time we go to tournaments. You’re already dealing with all these different people.”
But Soul Calibur was sorta left out of the global fighting community as it continued to grow and mesh. And that left it out of the conversation. That left it from appearing at tournaments. It became a game that relied on local LANs, unable to really spread beyond that.
Super Smash Bros. has a very dedicated fanbase, with passionate players willing to grind obsessively and pay thousands to compete in small tournaments with prize pools lower than the cost of the flight to get there. This energy has kept games like Smash 64 and Melee alive.
Ultimate doesn’t have that same longevity on its side. It’s a newer game with younger players and an ever-changing cast of pros and characters in the top 8. And, despite the passion, Ultimate is still left out of many fighting game events. This could be due to Nintendo. This could be due to the player base being broke.
Either way, I don’t think it will find its way back into the spotlight without rollback netcode. I’m not saying Smash will “die” without it. We do just fine as a grassroots scene that continues to claim we don’t need Nintendo or money. We like to claim that’s what keeps us real and gritty. That’s what makes the Smash scene so special.
I still think this. But how will Smash grow beyond this grassroots community without rollback netcode?
If players from around the world can’t compete with one another, connect with one another and have meaningful online placements and tourneys, Smash can’t become that kind of “melting pot” that other games have become. It will remain isolated to locals.
I’m sure you can recall back in the cursed lockdown days of yore (2020) when all the tournaments went online. The online play was so different that we saw online warriors taking down tourney champions. We saw certain characters dominate online even though they barely see any action in person.
It got so bad that the Smash community even debated whether online tournaments should count towards the Ultimate ranking at all. It didn’t feel like it represented the true Ultimate competitive experience. I mean, that’s really bad for a fighting game. That shows you can’t have legit online tournaments that actually matter.
Tournament organizer Arian “TheCrimsonBlur” Fathieh told InvenGlobal at the time that Smash needed to copy what other fighting games did, which is to figure out a point system to pre-determine how much online tournaments will count for compared to LAN tournaments.
On top of questionable online tournament results, top regions still struggle against one another and feel disconnected at LAN tournaments to this day. Right now, Japan is dominating Ultimate as they have started traveling over the past few years. North American players have been struggling to understand their playstyle, likely since they can’t practice against them online. At least not accurately.
MenaRD recently moved to Japan to be around more Street Fighter 6 players, experiencing their better online experiences and tournaments. He told me over a call: “I’m more informed. I know more characters and situations. All kinds of playstyles. Japanese players have a different philosophy. Very few players play the game with their approach on our side of the world.”
There’s no denying that the FGC feels strongly about rollback netcode for a wide range of reasons. MultiVersus had a custom rollback netcode that had fighting game players, including many Ultimate players, flocking to the beta to see what it’d be like to play a platform fighter online with rollback netcode. Within a month, MultiVersus had 20 million total players.
Fighting game fans have made things very clear: they want rollback netcode, but they want it in Smash specifically.
So… Do I think Nintendo will add rollback netcode?
No.
I have been pretty vocal about Nintendo’s ongoing actions that feel vindictive toward the Smash esports scene. I don’t think Nintendo gives two hoots about competitive players grinding online or competing against players in other countries.
In 2020, Sakurai discussed rollback netcode in a Famitsu column: “There are also requests for a rollback method, and we did inspect it during development, but we passed up on it. The side effects were too big.”
What are the “side effects,” you ask? Not sure. But it’s clear the team has very different priorities if they believe rollback netcode isn’t worth it.
But… Maybe he will try again. Maybe Smash 6 is finally the time. It’s not completely off the table, it seems, but I don’t see it being a priority.
There is no denying that the next Smash game will be a huge hit. It will be played in every living room with a Nintendo Switch 2. I even think it will temporarily revitalize the Ultimate scene (which will then be called whatever the new game is called, I guess).
But if it still doesn’t have rollback netcode, it won’t grow beyond that. It won’t become a big part of the fighting game scene. It won’t get the sponsors, funding and support it needs to be anything more than it currently is.
Maybe the Smash community doesn’t want to be anything more. If so, more power to you. A part of me feels the same. Just don’t be surprised if the prize pools keep dwindling and no esports organizations want to get involved.
