New rumors surrounding NetherRealm Studios’ next game seem to suggest that they’re currently hard at work at yet another Mortal Kombat game. If true, this would be a break from the studio’s pattern, which has alternated between Mortal Kombat and Injustice for close to a decade. Fighting game fans have been expecting the announcement of a new Injustice for some time now, but it seems that the recent turmoil surrounding WB Games may have thrown a wrench in any plans the developer had involving Batman, Superman and the rest of their corner of the DC universe.
In 2020, amidst the chaos of a global pandemic, Netherrealm parent company WB Games was rumored to be up for sale. If Warner had decided to sell off its gaming division, players could have seen Mortal Kombat and the teams behind the legendary Arkham series under the control of prospective buyers like Microsoft and EA. However, the deal never materialized, possibly due to Warner Bros. reevaluating a strong 2022 lineup that includes games like Hogwarts Legacy. In 2021, WarnerMedia announced plans to merge operations with Discovery, with the gaming division said to be split between WB’s old owners at AT&T and the newly merged conglomerate.
In clips from a recent episode of his Giant Bomb show GrubbSnax, industry insider Jeff Grubb confirmed that all of this corporate maneuvering may have had a significant impact on NetherRealm’s production pipeline. Because the company was unsure if they’d have free reign to use DC characters by the time production on a prospective Injustice 3 wrapped up, the team went for the safe bet and started up work on another Mortal Kombat instead. It’s also evident that Mortal Kombat is a hot property in 2021, and Grubb explained that it just made sense to make another sequel since the developer knows it will sell well.
This isn’t to say that Injustice is an unpopular series all of a sudden, but Mortal Kombat 11 is a blockbuster. The game has sold an impressive 12 million copies in its two years on the market. NetherRealm supported this ravenous playerbase with two seasons of DLC characters as well as a story campaign expansion that rivalled the main game’s single-player content in length. On top of all that, a new Mortal Kombat could synergize with the just-rebooted live-action movie series and the animated direct-to-video films already in the pipeline. The various owners of NetherRealm are seemingly all in on the fighting game franchise in a way that hasn’t been seen since the ’90s, so there’s no reason to stop the momentum now.
While it’s not known for sure what NetherRealm is working on, all signs seem to point to a rebooted Mortal Kombat hitting PC and consoles in the not too distant future. Considering how Mortal Kombat 11‘s DLC left the universe, the team can go back to the drawing board and craft a brand new rendition of the fighting tournament with any fighters they want to highlight. It’s an exciting prospect for fans, especially since the previous Mortal Kombat provided closure for the long and winding saga of the defenders of EarthRealm.
Source: Giant Bomb/YouTube
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