The King of Fighters series is one of SNK’s powerhouse fighting game series that is now nearing its 30th anniversary. The King of Fighters ’94, the first game in the franchise, saw its official release back on August 25, 1994.
This weekend, the company will be celebrating their long-running franchise’s 30th birthday, and apparently they’re bringing gifts for us. It appears that the company is gearing up for a “big announcement” related to the King of Fighters series that is set to come very soon.
SNK’s various Twitter accounts have been tweeting about the upcoming 30th anniversary over the last few days. We have now seen several tweets that feature images of KOF characters, as well as a countdown to the big day.
One tweet in particular that was posted earlier this week specifically makes mention of a “big announcement” before informing people of the anniversary and encouraging them to prepare.
“BIG ANNOUNCEMENT 3 more days until the 30th anniversary of THE KING OF FIGHTERS!!” wrote the official SNK Global Twitter account. “Get ready #KOF”
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
3 more days until the 30th anniversary of THE KING OF FIGHTERS!!
Get ready#KOF pic.twitter.com/m3JVqE8chp
— SNK GLOBAL (@SNKPofficial) August 22, 2024
In another tweet sent out yesterday, the company shared another assortment of KOF character art from various games in the franchise with another countdown. As of yesterday, we were only two days away from the celebration.
2 MORE DAYS
2 more days until the 30th anniversary of THE KING OF FIGHTERS!!#KOF pic.twitter.com/WsVUiGcYxS
— SNK GLOBAL (@SNKPofficial) August 23, 2024
As far as what this could be, there are definitely some interesting possibilities. Now, we’re hoping that SNK didn’t simply mean that they were making a big announcement that the 30th anniversary of the franchise is coming in a few days.
With the way the initial tweet was worded, it could potentially be read that way, though given the company’s current fighting game hot streak I’m guessing it’s a bit more than that.
It is also very common for video game developers to do something special for big anniversaries of a series, and 30 years is definitely a massive milestone. So, there’s a solid chance we will indeed see something revealed on the 25th.
Going down the list of what it could potentially be, we’d start by ruling out a King of Fighters 16. While that would certainly qualify as a “big announcement,” it is very unlikely due to SNK currently having Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves heavily in development and new DLC coming to King of Fighters 15.
The most likely reveal would be a compilation title with several of the main King of Fighters games on it. It has been a while since we’ve seen modern re-releases of past KOF games, and SNK could very much be trying to go the Capcom route in reintroducing their classic games to new fans on current-gen hardware with updated features.
Adding more fuel to this theory is the fact that SNK just recently and out of the blue re-released SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, which is a title that is often overshadowed by Capcom’s version of the classic crossover, Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2.
In addition to this, the artwork SNK has been sharing with their countdown has featured pieces from numerous different KOF games, which could be looked at as just being done to signify the 30th anniversary or potentially a hint that the announcement is going to involve various past KOF titles.
Going beyond fighting games, though, it’s also possible that SNK could be working on other King of Fighters related media. On the largest scale, maybe a movie, but more likely than that would be a TV series or animated film, and fighting game/video game movies and TV shows are certainly all the rage right now.
We’ll have to wait just a little bit longer before we find out what SNK has in store for The King of Fighters’ 30th anniversary.