Arbiter In Killer Instinct tease

[Iago407]

@xCrimsonLegendx

One would be, fan feedback. Battletoads and Arbiter were two of the most requested characters on the forums among the dozens that were frequently suggested. Some of the other notable ones would have been Kameo of course, then there was Skorge from Gears of War as well as Joanna Dark. I’d say those were the other three top requested characters by the fans.

I dunno man, maybe you check different sites than I do, but on this site, Joanna Dark seemed like the clear cut top choice among fans from all the threads I saw with Arbiter probably coming in second, but maybe you disagree. I type in “Guest” under the search and most of the threads that come up either mention her in the title or feature her a lot in conversation.

I don’t mean to throw your own words back in your face, but you said this back in August when the whole guest idea first came out:

@xCrimsonLegendx

Joanna Dark or the Arbiter from Halo. Can’t really see many other characters being cool enough to make the cut.

To be fair, I can’t recall if this was after Rash was announced, or if this was just after it was announced that guests would appear in season 3. But either way, you, along with a LOT of other people seemingly had Joanna Dark right at the top of the list.

@xCrimsonLegendx

Secondly, the marketing side: I’m sure the folks at MS had a say in what licenses were on the table as well as what franchises would bring in the most players for KI and make the most profit. Battletoads as I said is such a legendary game that even mentioning its in Killer Instinct is enough to get old school fans interested and playing KI, that’s one demographic. Choosing a Halo character when Halo 5 dropped relatively recently and is working its way up the esports scene works for MS to cross pollinate those two game as well, Halo fans I’ve already observed are going to give KI a spin and some players in the forums here who don’t know the Arbiter are already curious enough to be asking for the Arbiter’s lore and history.

A game like Kameo that is probably never going to see another incarnation isn’t really going to help them sell games, Joanna Dark while more popular than Kameo isn’t really all that interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the original Perfect Dark was a gem, I love it but frankly Joanna is just another spy chick in latex and wouldn’t add much to KI. Plus the later PD games kind of sucked, if PD was to come back today the game I feel would flop. There just isn’t the fanbase or the market for it, the FPS genre is saturated so much so that even Halo is struggling, a PD game right now would be suicide. A Gears character would have fit KI more than the last two mentioned but obviously Halo is their flagship so MS would want to represent that in their cross promotion.

I’m not trying to squash anyone’s hopes of seeing their characters in KI, I’m just looking at it as logically as I can and some of the suggestions while awesome just aren’t logical fits for the two guest character slots we are confirmed to have in season 3.

I’m trying to look at this as logically as possible as well and I just don’t see “sell more games” as the only motivation MS/IG has here in terms of finding the best fits for guests in this game. I think that Rash is an example of my line of thinking in action.

Battletoads has a loyal, but relatively small cult following, which makes sense since the franchise, which began as a Ninja Turtles clone back in the early 90’s hasn’t seen a sequel since 1994. Yes, it’s on lists and yes there are speed runs, but do either of those make the game iconic?

I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how this franchise is so relevant and so popular as to warrant being such a logical choice if we’re talking about franchises that would bring in the most players for KI and make the most profit. So to me, there has to be other considerations at work.

I think that we just have a difference of opinion here, which is fine. I don’t see Rash being more of a game seller than Joanna Dark, or a character from Gears and even if that were the case, I still don’t think that “moving more units” is the only consideration at play here, nor should it be. I also don’t buy the idea that Rash fills a certain quota for nostalgia any better than Joanna Dark or several other characters might have.

As for Joanna being “another spy in latex” and these other suggestions “not being logical fits” well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but again, we disagree (which again, is still fine). I think that other characters have their followings, they have their backgrounds and their mythos and others can be interesting and if IG’s work on this game thus far is any indication, I really think that they can make a number of characters exciting and/or fun to play as.

Really, you’re not squashing my hopes here. I’m totally okay with the two choices that were made. I just don’t buy how you’re arriving at the conclusion that these were the best options. If it were only selling more units, you go with a Gears character. If you’re talking about nostalgia, Joanna Dark was a much more talked about character on this forum.

@xCrimsonLegendx

Halo announcer to do guest announcer for KI

Now we’re on the same page! That would be freaking AWESOME!