This game has the worst online mode I've seen in a decade

On PC at least

Spent the last TEN minutes just waiting for a match to be found just to wait 60 seconds for people to not see the EXTREMELY tiny difference that occurs when a match is found. Completely miserable -- can't find enough time to play to find enough matches to even practice.

I wish I hadn't played the story so much so I could return it on steam. What a hot piece of shit.

You can still request a refund on Steam, even after you've played more than 2 hours in the first 2 weeks. It's just that your refund request will not be automatically approved. Instead, it will be reviewed and decided by a human, which takes longer and is subject to human judgment. If you have a compelling reason for refunding, such as the online matchmaking being totally busted, there is (anecdotally) a good chance you'll be granted the refund. Your case may be strengthened if other customers have requested refunds for similar reasons, you haven't played tons of the game beyond the 2 hour threshold, and you aren't a serial refunder. After all, you're appealing to a person to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're refunding in good faith. I'd give it a shot, if I were you.

So you're saying you waited 10 minutes for matchmaking, it found a match but didn't alert you clearly enough so you weren't able to accept in time? Sorry, the post was a little confusing.

I'm still debating whether to throw money down on this for ps4 vs pc being sort of into fighting games and loving the style, but not really a DB fan. Maybe matchmaking's better on PS4.

I also wonder if it may be a networking/NAT issue on your side. Or maybe time of day? Not saying it's not their matchmaking that's the problem, just something to maybe check as well before refunding.

Seems the game is popular on steam so i'm surprised it took so long to find a match, or maybe the lobby you chose was dead? How often does it take that long to matchmake?

@ripelivejam: During the beta it would have a little notification it found a match but you have to actually click to start it, which i agree kinda sucks.

THANK YOU. Why is nobody covering this? I love the game. Its huge fun, but the online is a wreck.

First off all, why can you play single player content in an online lobby? You're taking up space for people who want to actually, your know, play online! On P.C. Thankfully they added a few more servers, but they are always full. Always. The rare chance I actually join a lobby, I disconnect after a few minutes. I've played maybe 3 or 4 full online matches since launch.

The game is brilliant, but I think there's are some serious design flaws here. I'm hoping some patches will fix it though, I can wait.

People are covering it: https://kotaku.com/dragon-ball-fighterz-lobby-system-is-a-huge-hassle-1822516386

@chaser324: ah missed that, thanks for the link

I love the actual gameplay so much. Its my favorite fighting game to date. however the lobby system is soooo bad. the single player is horrible and auto accept matches should be on by default. why i had to go enable that blows my mind. However maybe im lucky but i have no problems getting matches. usually takes 30 seconds to find someone in ranked and very rarely am i disconnected.

The lobby thing is completely pointless. Just make a menu and be done with it. Everything would be much quicker.

I watched my brother play some of it last night. I do agree that it's not great, but I don't think it's "the worst online mode ever". He didn't seem to have much trouble finding any games and it definitely didn't take him ten minutes.

Maybe location makes a difference? East Coast US, if that helps.

I dunno if it was added in a patch, or was there all along, but I noticed this option in the Lobby Settings screen, maybe that'd help somewhat ?

I tried to make a private match to invite a friend, but you have to both connect to the same lobby, create a ring match thing for them to find and enter, input a 4 digit password and have teams already created and saved as there is no character or stage select in online fights if you want to mix things up, it also seems like whoever chooses their team first is always on the left side, being stuck on the right for the duration felt odd as i've been playing Tekken 7, which lets you choose your side regardless, which really feels like the way to go with fighting games.
It feels a little antiquated, the lobby is obviously a nicely presented place for random people to fight each other, but for anything else its clumsy, for private matches Guilty Gear Xrd let you invite friends to private lobbies where you could kick a football and hop onto arcade machines to fight, other friends could have their own private matches in the same lobby or spectate other friends, it's a shame that didn't carry over.

This is completely crazy.

Well maybe they're fixing it so that you don't have to change your lobby name every time you want to connect to a Ring Match at least...?

Wow looks like they really dropped the ball on the online matchmaking. Has this team never made an online game before?

Also if the servers are down can you even play the game at all?

This is exactly why I have not jumped into this game. I really wanted to play this game, and would love to play it if I was playing with people in person. Perhaps if I have a chance for a long couch multiplayer session with friends we'll give it a try. I just know such a multiplayer experience would not be something I want to induce myself to.

I think he's saying he waited 10 minutes for a match to be made, then the game essentially says "Match made! Both players have 60 seconds to accept!", but the other player never accepted the match.

This has been a big problem for me... plus, I keep getting matched with absolute fucking savages that I have no chance of beating. I think I've won 2 out of 20 online matches at this point.

The matchmaking is actually the only online thing I don't have much of a problem with - aside from a few disconnects it's been fine. It's the private matches that are totally broken. And I don't like matchmaking in general, I just wanna get wrecked by the GB FGC!

@cikame said:

Yeah something like this is what I was expecting from a new arcsys game... my guess/hope is they just didn't have that functionality ready for release. There's a Kame House in the lobby that doesn't do anything, I'm hoping that will become a private lobby zone at some point. Though I'd be happy if the ring matches just worked at all...

My biggest problem was with friends invites. It seems rather basic to let you play an online game with friends, but they implemented a system that was so convoluted it would make Nintendo shy... I hope the patch it up later, because right now it is a pretty sore point in an otherwise good game.

I have no problem finding and fighting randoms, though. I barely can complete a round on Arcade without someone challenging me. Maybe it is related to your region or the lobby you are in (Argentina, btw).

My issue is more the lobby system, no idea why that isn’t a seperate thing like in Persona 4 Ultimax, instead of having it as a main menu hub, if you get disc you get booted back to the start screen. It’s incredibly annoying.

I have also purchased this on Steam, and have not been impressed with the online system. I cannot defend it because its a mess; why do they not have a big lobby system for this game? It takes forever to get into a lobby. I think they tried to make a social space cause every other game is doing it. They do have neat features within the space (The arena feature is cool, and your dumb character can be cool to customize) but it is not efficient.bBut they are trying to fix it, and it should be soon. When you are in a lobby, you can just click the menu button and autojoin a match immediately (you dont have to go to a specific place each time). Further, when I am in a match, the netcode is generally stable (depending on the connection of the other person), and I am able to do all the combos I learned in storymode/arcade/ practice range.

Even with these gripes, this game is amazing. Go play it.

Can anyone even get in a game on Xbox. I've had the game since it came out but haven't had time to play until now. If I try ranked or casual match it literally instantly gives me "Disconnected." and shoots me back out to the main menu.

...seriously kinda want a refund. Instantly "disconnected." right when you hit to join a game. Just completely broken. So its only worse from the beta.