What is the release date of The King of Fighters XV?

The King of Fighters XV will be the next game in the long-running SNK fighting franchise. Initially, the game was slated to launch sometime in 2021; however, the developers have pushed that launch date back due to rising cases of COVID-19 in Japan. Now, players can look forward to the game launching in the first quarter of 2022.

Alongside this announcement, the team also revealed that the game will simultaneously launch on multiple platforms. The King of Fighters XV is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X when it launches. That’s a big change from KOF XIV, which launched exclusively on PS4 in 2016 before eventually making its way to PC and arcades the following year. It’s also the first KOF game to come to an Xbox platform since XIII came to the 360 in 2011.

This reintroduction of new platforms and the simultaneous launch could mean that the game might support crossplay. Of course, until SNK confirms that, it’s pure speculation; however, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the developers did decide to include it. After all, fighting games need a robust community to survive, and opening up the playerbase is one way to make that happen.

We should expect to hear more about The King of Fighters XV over the coming months. SNK will likely push the game quite heavily at events like the Tokyo Game Show in September as they near the launch date.