EVO 2018 is wrapping up, with the main stage games’ top 8 competing throughout the day. First up was Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 this morning, and at the end Arc System Works had two things to announce.
One of the announcements was just a tease, with the company’s CEO Minoru Kidooka telling the crowd that Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari is back in Japan, developing the next installment in the Guilty Gear series. Unfortunately there was no more concrete announcement, but he said to “wait a little longer” for something more substantial.
The other announcement was not for a game; Arc System Works announced the ARCREVO World Tour, an upcoming tournament circuit similar to the Capcom Pro Tour and Tekken World Tour. Building off the existing Arc Revolution Cup in Japan to bring it worldwide, qualifiers will be held around the world from fall 2018 to fall 2019 for Guilty Gear Xrd REV2, BlazBlue Centralfiction, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Some of these qualifiers include EVO and EVO Japan, Frosty Faustings, CEO, REVOLUTION, Brussels Challenge, ARCREVO Japan, and South East Asia Major, among others, with more to be added in the future. Winners throughout the qualifiers will then be invited to the finals at ARCREVO America 2019 in California. Across all three games, Arc System Works will have over $100,000 USD in cash prizes to be won. More information will be available on the home page for the event, although as of right now it has not been updated and it is mostly in Japanese.
The trailer for the event can be seen here:
ARCREVO World Tour may not be exciting for everyone, but for those looking forward to it there will likely be plenty of exciting matches to be had, and more tournament support in the west for these types of fighting games is always good for the growth of the community.
Hopefully more will be announced about the upcoming Guilty Gear game in the near future, whether it’s an entirely new game or another update to Guilty Gear Xrd.