Right before Top 8 at CEOtaku, Neople and Nexon confirmed that a big update is coming to DNF Duel this December, though it won’t be the DLC content everyone has been waiting for just yet.
Fighting games in the modern era of game development are almost always released with the promise of more content post-launch in the form of DLC characters and additional updates. However, DNF Duel launched without any information about content coming in the future.
That has significantly hurt the game in terms of keeping a playerbase, with the Dungeon Fighter Online spinoff dropping players consistently month-over-month since it launched on June 28. Steam Charts showed a peak of just 206 players over the last 30 days.
The lack of DLC isn’t the only thing that has been hurting the game, with bugs and “unbalanced” gameplay also leading to its continued decline. This is something the developers are aware of and will be changing in several upcoming updates.
Production director Ryousuke Kodani confirmed an update for the PC versions of the game is planned for the end of the month that will fix bugs like screen freezes during online play and various input issues. Additional bug fixes will be implemented in subsequent updates.
The next major patch will be dropping in December, with Kodani noting that it will have balance adjustments for the entire roster while stating “our direction is to add only buffs to all characters.” So if you were hoping for anything to slow the gameplay down, you might want to prepare for the opposite to happen.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a “one last thing” for this developer update to get fans hyped up for some upcoming content. Instead, it was more of a teaser where Kodani confirmed something other than a balance patch is in the works but won’t be ready for some time yet.
“We’re currently working on something other than a balance patch,” Kodani said. “Due to the circumstances, it’ll take quite some time before we have this ready. We’re working every day with confidence that it’ll satisfy the players.”
It is unclear what he means by “circumstances” in this update, but this is almost certainly a tease for DLC coming in the future.
We already know DNF Duel will be supported through at least Summer 2023 competitively since it is part of the Arc World Tour circuit, which will keep interest up for dedicated fans. But this is a sign that Neople and Nexon are aware of what players want to see in the future. Hopefully, these updates won’t release too late to bring some excitement back to the casual playerbase, too.
