Mortal Kombat continues to be one of the best selling fighting game franchises of all time, but the developers at NetherRealm Studios aren’t ultimately in full control of its future under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Discovery.
That is raising some questions now as to what that’s going to be, though, as WB is apparently planning to take a step back from AAA video game releases while looking further into live-service and mobile titles.
WB Games boss J.B. Perrette recently spoke at a Morgan Stanley event where he had some interesting things to say about what they’re planning now that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League fell short of sales expectations for the company.
“Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?” said Perrette via GameSpot’s reporting.
He goes on to talk about how success is not a guarantee in the “volatile” AAA market despite having the best selling game of 2023 in Hogwarts Legacy.
The plan is to try and mitigate that danger by focusing more on the mobile and free-to-play space as well as leveraging live-service games to keep a consistent cash flow coming in over a longer period of time.
“Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?”
As for Mortal Kombat, Perrette does note the fighting game franchise is specifically one of WBD’s most popular brands that they’ll be looking to use, so it doesn’t seem as though Earth Realm is in danger of disappearing.
Instead, the question is what exactly that future is going to look like under this new plan, as we’ve already seen some concerning signs arise with Mortal Kombat 1’s release.
Modern fighting games are already basically live-service games in all but name, but MK1 is seemingly taking that a step further than most with expanded premium shops with limited time items, seasonal content and things like paid Fatality bundles, which haven’t exactly gone over well with the playerbase.
This also appears to have put a strain on the development team at NetherRealm Studios as well with MK1 launching with more technical issues than you’d typically expect as well as missing key features like Krossplay until months later.
Under the new strategy, issues like these could end up exacerbated while NRS has less control over their future and what goes into their games.
Although Mortal Kombat is still seemingly going to be pushed by WBD, the worry is monetization and focus on live-service aspects will cross a tipping point where fans step away completely or no longer engage (kinda like we’ve seen with Suicide Squad).
Mortal Kombat 1 did manage to sell an impressive 3 million copies or so in around a month after launch and continued to rank high in sales charts, but there’s been no numbers updates since early November 2023.
With the less positive word of mouth for MK1 compared to Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat X, the likelihood of the new game continuing the trajectory of growth game over game is looking lessened, but that of course remains to be seen.
WBD previously said they plan to support MK1 for 3–4 years, which would be around double their typical cycle, so the game should still have a long life ahead of it.
What that life will look like though is the question no one can really answer right now though outside of maybe WBD management, which is subject to change.
What we do know, however, is that the team at NetherRealm is talented and dedicated to Mortal Kombat and their fighting games.
They’re just not fully in the driver seat of their own destiny here.