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Mortal Kombat X will feature at least one 'guest' character
Teasing NetherRealm's DLC plans for Mortal Kombat X, series co-creator Ed Boon revealed that the upcoming fighter will likely feature at least one "guest" character from an outside franchise. "I think there's a novelty to having a downloaded guest character," Boon said at the 3:56:00 mark in this Madcatz-produced video. "The chances of [having] at least one of them will be pretty good." A Nightmare on Elm Street villain Freddy Krueger previously appeared in 2011's Mortal Kombat as add-on content, and Mortal Kombat's Scorpion went on to guest star in fellow NetherRealm-developed fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us in 2013. Though classic combatant Raiden recently joined Mortal Kombat X's playable roster, Boon notes that the game will feature "more new MK characters since the first [Mortal Kombat]." Boon assured that Mortal Kombat X's add-on content could host an array of returning fighters beyond its initial roster, however. "If you don't see your favorite character, there's always the DLC characters," he said. "[You] can hold out hope to see that we're going to include them." [Image: NetherRealm Studios]
Ed Boon: Mortal Kombat X will run at 1080p, 60fps
When asked about the tech behind the upcoming Mortal Kombat X, series co-creator Ed Boon tweeted that the game, like its predecessor, will be running on Unreal Engine 3. "[Mortal Kombat X will be] using our highly self-customized version of Unreal 3," Boon tweeted. "60fps 1080p!" Mortal Kombat X is slated to hit the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC at some point during 2015. [Image: WBIE]
'Mortal Kombat X' listed by Amazon UK
Amazon's UK storefront has posted listings of a "Mortal Kombat X" for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC platforms. The listings are void of description and imagery, but list Warner Bros. Interactive as publisher, and estimate a release date of 2015. Mortal Kombat series creator Ed Boon has been teasing something over the past few weeks, counting down days via images posted to his Twitter account. That countdown is set to end tomorrow, so we should know more soon. [Image: Warner Bros. Interactive]
Ed Boon teases new Mortal Kombat with decreasing subtlety
NetherRealm Studios creative director Ed Boon has been offering innocuous images seemingly suggesting a new Mortal Kombat game on the horizon for quite a while now, but with yesterday's appearance of a leaked promotional poster, the franchise co-creator has grown much less coy. The poster that appeared on Reddit features a mangled human spine, the familiar dragon's head logo of the Mortal Kombat series, and the phrase "Who's Next?" Though his earlier attempts at teasing fans were far more obscure - this photo of a car's bumper would be dull coming from anyone but Boon - Boon embraced the poster, borrowing that monochrome dragon's head for use as his Twitter icon and replacing his account's header image with that "Who's Next?" slogan. Following a host of questions from fans, Boon has apparently given up on his attempts to tease his Twitter followers. "I don't suppose there's anything I can do to make you think we still MIGHT be announcing Injustice 2 in #five days is there.....?" Boon later asked no one in particular. Assuming there is a new Mortal Kombat in the works, it seems quite likely that we'll hear all about it at the upcoming E3 conference, though Boon may spill the beans a bit early. That "MKX" bumper photograph was part of a slow countdown Boon had been updating on Twitter that is slated to hit zero on June 2. We'll keep a close eye on NetherRealm Studios, and report back on anything that might emerge. [Image: WBIE]
Don't expect to see the first three Mortal Kombat games on Wii U
In depressing news for fans of gory fisticuffs and color-coded ninjas, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has squashed the possibility that the first three Mortal Kombat games might appear on the Wii U virtual console. Boon was asked about the chances of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 3 coming to the virtual console in their fan-favorite Super Nintendo incarnations. His response was concise: "0.0%." While disappointing news, it should be pointed out that all three of these games have been re-released numerous times on various other platforms, making it very easy to find your Mortal Kombat fix elsewhere. Alternately, if you're just in it for the characters and fatalities, 2011's Mortal Kombat retells the story of the first three Mortal Kombat games with far superior fighting mechanics, online multiplayer and a surprising wealth of single-player content. [Image: WBIE]
Scorpion seeks revenge on Injustice this Tuesday
Everybody's favorite ninja-turned-skeleton-head-ghost-ninja (Mortal Kombat's Scorpion, obviously) will fight his way back from the grave and into the DC Universe this Tuesday, June 11, when he becomes the latest DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us. Scorpion's implementation in Injustice appears faithful to his incarnation in 2011's Mortal Kombat, though he won't play identically due to differences in Injustice's engine and gameplay mechanics. Ol' Scorps' toasty new threads were designed by legendary comic book artist Jim Lee, seen above talking design with NetherRealm's Ed Boon. Scorpion will cost $5.
Ed Boon makes unofficial poll for Injustice DLC characters
NetherRealm Studios head Ed Boon is asking Injustice: Gods Among Us fans which DC character they'd like to see appear in the new fighter. In an unofficial poll, fans can choose their favorite Injustice DLC candidate. The (again, entirely unofficial) roster includes Blue Beetle, Doctor Fate, Powergirl, Red Hood (Jason Todd version), Static Shock, Swamp Thing and Zatanna. Our vote goes to Swamp Thing, because everyone knows it's important to be green these days.
Boon hopes Injustice: Gods Among Us is 'first step' in a new direction for NetherRealm
With the success of Mortal Kombat, it's hardly shocking that Ed Boon's NetherRealm Studios is already at work on another fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. But Boon wouldn't mind getting away from the fighting game rigmarole, granted Injustice "does well.""If it does well, we would like to see our next step be a non-fighting game, maybe something unique in its own right," Boon told PlayStation Blog. "This is our first step in that direction."But this doesn't mean Boon's ready to look beyond Injustice just yet. There's a lot planned for the DC brawler, including a DLC character campaign comparable to what we saw in Mortal Kombat. "We'll definitely want to introduce unexpected characters [via DLC] to Injustice. That'll be our strategy. It's comparable to Mortal Kombat, but being really aggressive with our DLC characters."
Get pummeled by 15 minutes of Injustice: Gods Among us footage
The next fighting game from the people who brought us last year's Mortal Kombat reboot is Injustice: Gods Among Us, and it looks appropriately unjust in its use of punches, kicks, and combinations thereof. Enjoy this lengthy guided tour, care of IGN.
Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection for PC is a real thing, on Steam now
It's official: The Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection does exist on PC, despite vehement, confusing statements from series creator Ed Boon to the contrary. Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection is available now on Steam, currently at 15 percent off, or $8.49.The Kollection includes arcade classics Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, with all the conveniences of modern PC gaming, which unfortunately means it comes without the kabinets.
Ed Boon wants NetherRealm Studios to branch out in 2012
Right now, most of us are thinking about the next Mortal Kombat -- and no, we don't mean the Vita version. It's gotta happen, right? We're sure it will, but according to MK creator and NetherRealm Studios head honcho, Ed Boon, his team is more than just a Mortal Kombat studio."I would be surprised if Warner Bros. and us never released another Mortal Kombat game again. We don't have a title to announce, but if this last one sold over 3 million and counting, there's a certain amount of assumption that we'd consider doing another Mortal Kombat game," Boon told GameSpot. "But at the same time, we want our studio to do more than just make Mortal Kombat games. We love making them but we also want to do different types of games. Different genres, different IPs."It's hardly telling of the future for NetherRealm Studios, but Boon did mention the studio's Arkham City tie-in for iOS as an indication for his studios' plans to branch out. "The Batman iOS game was kind of like us dipping our foot into that whole different types of games to do. We're going to continue in that direction, but I would be surprised if we never did another Mortal Kombat game again." Finally, when asked whether 2012 would be a year of diversification for NetherRealm, Boon responded, "Oh yes, without a doubt."
First details on Mortal Kombat for Vita: 60FPS, touchscreen fatalities and more
Having a scorpion in your pocket isn't usually the kind of experience people rush out and pay for, but Mortal Kombat progenitor and NetherRealm Studios creative director Ed Boon doesn't seem too worried about that. In fact, the Vita port of Mortal Kombat is starting to sound pretty legit: The title will include all of the characters and modes from the PS3 version, run at 60 frames per second and support both local and online 1-on-1 multiplayer via wifi, according to an interview with PlayStation Blog. The handheld homage to hemorrhaging also includes a second, brand-new Challenge Tower that takes advantage of the Vita's touchscreen and accelerometer in 150 new challenges. While unable to speak specifically on how the Vita's tech has been implemented in these challenges, Boon teased being able to tilt your Vita in order to change gravity's orientation during a hypothetical mission. The touchscreen will also be used for activating X-Ray attacks and swiping direction inputs to initiate fatalities, but beyond that no Ultimate MvC3-esque touch controls have been implemented. "We goofed around with ideas like that," said Boon. "It was an interesting novelty at first, but literally everybody who tried it said 'Oh, that's cute,' and then went right back to the normal control scheme." Mortal Kombat for the Vita is set to tear out tiny, adorable spines sometime this spring.
Mortal Kombat goes portable on Vita in 'spring 2012'
The folks at Mortal Kombat dev studio Netherrealm have had their hands on a PlayStation Vita dev unit in some form since way back in September 2010, so it stands to reason that the upcoming port of last year's Mortal Kombat to Vita will be packed with bells and whistles. Said port will arrive sometime after the Vita's North American launch this February, with publisher Warner Bros. Interactive pinning a "spring 2012" launch window to the portable fighter. Studio head Ed Boon promises both "original game content" and "new features" will arrive in MK's Vita iteration, though the announcement PR only teases the inclusion of "several" additions to be "revealed in the coming months." But if Netherrealm follows its usual marketing plan, all of those details will be leaked much, much sooner. The Vita iteration also include the PS3's exclusive character (God of War's main angry dude, Kratos) as well as all four DLC characters (one Mr. Freddy Krueger, Kenshi, Rain, Skarlet are all pictured on the box above). So it's kinda like that "Komplete Edition," just shrunken down.
Mortal Kombat creator talks about adapting Batman for iOS
I got to meet up with Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon on the red carpet at last weekend's VGAs, and rather than talking about the popular console fighting series, we instead talked about an iOS title: Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, which Boon's Netherrealm Studios developed in conjunction with Warner Brothers and the developer behind the console Batman: Arkham City, Rocksteady Studios. Boon says the game's release snuck up on him just as much as it did iOS customers. "It's one of our first iOS games," he says, "so we were doing it, and the whole process of iOS games, they don't promote them leading up to the launch, it's just boom, and you hear about it going out. But we've been working on it for quite a while." Netherrealm has shared assets with Rocksteady before, and the iOS game makes use of models from the console game (both are rendered with Unreal Engine 3), "so yeah," says Boon, "we're really proud of it." He does admit that the game borrows some ideas from the Infinity Blade series, but there are some cool progression features (not to mention that it uses the Batman license pretty well) that make Lockdown stand out. Boon says iOS development is a little easier than full console development, but it's getting harder. "It's not quite as big of a thing, but certainly the presentation is getting on par with the current generation of consoles and whatnot. It's definitely a more condensed project schedule, but a lot of the same assets." And this isn't the last we'll see of Netherrealm Studios on Apple's mobile platforms, according to Boon. "Oh, yeah," he told me, "we have a number of things in the works. But nothing we can say just yet.
NetherRealm considered Michael Myers, Jason as Mortal Kombat DLC
Mortal Kombat's newest kombatant certainly came as a surprise to the seasoned MK vets here at Joystiq; we were expecting Tanya, or maybe even Meat, but Krueger? Dude wasn't even on our radar, let alone our fantasy character selection screens. As out-of-left-field as his inclusion seems to us, series co-founder Ed Boon says that slasher villains have always been on the table as potential new characters. "Over the years, we've certainly had a number of conversations about guest characters," said Boon during an interview with PlayStation Blog. "A number of names were run by us: Jason, Michael Meyers [sic] and all those guys. Freddy Kreuger, we felt, was the most instantly recognizable and he fits in with Mortal Kombat with his claws." We think they made the right choice; why would anyone put the guy from So I Married An Axe Murderer in a Mortal Kombat game?
Mortal Kombat retailer-exclusive DLC koming for all
NetherRealm Studios head and Mortal Kombat co-creator ko-kreator Ed Boon has revealed via his Twitter feed that all of the retailer-specific pre-order DLC released for the series' ninth installment will soon be made available as one downloadable, for-pay kollection. "The 7 Klassic outfits & 3 Klassic fatalities that were retailer exclusives will be bundled into one DLC package," Boon writes. "Trailer coming on Friday." For those who haven't been keeping tabs on said content, it includes "classic" variants of Ermac, Jade, Kitana, Mileena, Reptile, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, along with additional fatalities for Reptile, Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Hopefully Friday's trailer will be accompanied by a date and price, so we can note it on our kalendars and put aside some kash.
Xbox-exclusive Mortal Kombat fighter discussed, Boon says
With Kratos headlining the Mortal Kombat roster on PS3, it seemed only a matter of time before NetherRealm Studios would announce an Xbox-exclusive character for the ninth installment in the grizzled fighting game series -- except the game's out today. It never happened. "Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't allow us to make a 360 exclusive [character]," MK boss man Ed Boon told Eurogamer. "I'm not allowed to talk too much about it, but I can tell you we certainly wanted to do an exclusive for 360, but that's all I can say." Boon did end up saying a little more, as he hinted that Halo's Master Chief and Gears of War's Marcus Fenix came up as (obvious) choices during discussion. Of course, Chief has been known to "balk at" the invitation to join an exclusive fighting tournament. And we heard that it's in Marcus' contract that any arena he enters has to be cover-based.
Mortal Kombat web series: From leak to Legacy
In June of last year, a video short appeared online under the name "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth." It was a polished, inventive take on the now classic fighting game franchise. Initially, its origins were unknown and fans could only speculate: Was it a clip from a new movie? An elaborate teaser for a new game? Quickly, however, director and choreographer Kevin Tancharoen's name was attached to the project, and then the actress playing Sonya Blade, Jeri Ryan, confirmed on Twitter that it wasn't a trailer at all, but a pitch aimed at Warner Bros. One that wasn't supposed to have been made public. "I wasn't exactly thrilled that it was leaked," Ryan says now, almost a year later. She had done the short as a favor for Tancharoen, whom she knew through a friend. Ryan first heard about the leak from fans while on a movie set in Montreal. "I came to the set, and later that day, there were 3000 tweets saying, 'What is this, what is this, what is this, what is this?' It was just crazy." "It wasn't supposed to go on the internet," reiterates Tancharoen, who had created the short film with his own money to send "out to different producers and things like that." He had uploaded it to YouTube on what he thought was a private page -- and the rest is history. Lucky for Tancharoen, Rebirth did reach Warner Bros. and impressed the studio enough to land the director a gig creating a live-action web series, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, to promote the new game. The first episode premiered today.
Ed Boon outs potential downloadable characters for new Mortal Kombat
A recent Tweet from Mortal Kombat mastermind Ed Boon has revealed a few characters that might end up in DLC packs for the upcoming, relaunched fighter. Boon asked his followers, "Tell me your order of preference for a DLC character. Rain, Shinnok, Kenshi, Robo-smoke, or new character?" In a later Tweet, he also added Mortal Kombat 4 brawler Tanya to the list of potential kombatants. There's really only one fair way to settle this dispute: With a global championship where martial artists fight to the death to determine the fate of the Earthrealm. By which, of course, we mean an Official Joystiq Poll™: %Poll-58668%
Jax returns to Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat creative lead Ed Boon took to GameTrailers TV last night in order to reveal the latest character for the forthcoming series reboot: Jax. For the handful of you who've never made the acquaintance of the metal-armed gentleman, his Christian name is Jackson Briggs and he was first introduced in Mortal Kombat 2. Though he didn't end up with metal arms until Mortal Kombat 3, he'll be appearing in next year's MK fully kitted out. As for more characters in the series being revealed, Boon teases the final roster, saying, "It's gonna be somewhere in the 20s, but we don't have a final number." He also points out that DLC will bring more characters to the game's lineup, so you hardcore Noob Saibot fans can relax.
