If they don’t have a hard date because the engineering task of making the Steam version is really hard, then they should tell us. Even if you have nothing to say, telling us that you have nothing to say (without belittling your fan base) and keeping us informed as the process goes along evokes much more confidence in your community than just being silent and hoping people will care enough when you do have something to say.
Examples of things you could say (if they were true):
“We’re really excited about this Steam port, but there are lots of challenges ahead of us, and as such we don’t have a firm date for you. We’ll keep you informed as we learn more, and hopefully have more to share next month!”
“We would love to say yes or no to cross-play or cross-buy at this point, but the truth is, there are some roadblocks ahead of us for that, some of which involve both MS and Steam engineers. We are investing lots of energy into exploring all the avenues and we’ll let everyone know as soon as we can.”
And again, it’s not like this is just a lone incident, which would be a lot easier to give the benefit of the doubt. They’ve been quiet (and in some cases, outright snarky) over details about… well, just about everything for about a year now. People can only take so much before they just go do something else, even hardcore, dedicated fans that want to support the game as much as they can.
When they don’t say anything, people either forget, or they assume the worst. “Why would they not tell us about cross-play?” (for example) immediately makes people feel like there might not be cross-play. Even if there is cross-play in the final product, many people who would have been excited for it will not really care when you end up announcing it. But I think I’m giving too much credit here; they clearly knew whether the game will or will not have cross-play before they ever announced the Steam version to the public (because of course you would know how hard that is to do, and whether it’s possible/in your budget), and they are simply not telling us for who knows what reason.
ii can understand the frustration especially without knowing wsup with the MS Ultra Tour pot bonus money … and not knowing wsup with KIWC …but … its gonna be alright guys … lets get thru these ultimates … learn more tech … get better at MUs … and see what happens either on Aug 22nd when the ultimate pack releases or sometime during GamesCom Aug 22-26
side note … I hope we get ultimates for everyone …
I can imagine it all being in MS hands at this point. I don’t know if MS would make IG do the port for the game or hand it off to the team that did the Halo Wars port and whatever game has been ported from W10 to Steam. IG’s hands are probably tied as they’ve fulfilled their contractual obligations in terms of content and it’s all in MS hands now. I know IG is working on Extinction at the moment and so probably have a skeleton crew on Killer Instinct.
Who knows, IG probably wants KI to work on Win7/8 with crossbuy and crossplay but it’s probably not up to them.
I just don’t know, I’ve been trying on Twitter to tell people to get interested in the Steam port but when they ask for any additional info and I can’t tell them anything just sort of makes them not interested anymore.
You know how excited I get to tell people that KI is coming to Steam? Do you know what their first question is? “When?” Then with a straight face I’m expected to tell them “We don’t know but it is”. Then the follow-up questions “Is it going to be cross-play?” “Do you need Xbox Live to play?” “Will it only work on WIndows 10 Steam?”. And again, my answer has to be the same.
Its painful to watch the change in facial expression from excitement to meh in the span of a few seconds. C’mon guys, you wouldn’t have announced a Steam version for this game if these questions didn’t have an answer already. How would it hurt to have this information available right now?
Call me bonkers for twisting my tinfoil hat into a Fulgore ponytail all you want, but I really believe that the Steam version of Killer Instinct is leading to…. (wait for it) …more Killer Instinct. I know, I know- but hear me out. I dredged up the 12/9 Textural Stream from late 2016 and made a new topic about the bonus shadow lab slot(s) we could eventually get, but FAR more importantly, there are some really relevant gems that make more sense as I re-read them in mid-summer 2017. For instance:
KI was released on the Xbox One to start, and the game’s user base grew quite a bit since it was eventually released on Windows 10. If they can “grow the community as much as possible, COUGHSTEAMRELEASECOUGH “(they) can keep making more.”
With the brand-new KI comic on the way, continued interest in the game, the impending Steam release, and the upcoming 4K patch for Xbox One X (which I believe implies that Microsoft Game Studios isn’t close do being done with KI as they want to showcase how great it will look & run on their new console), as well as the quote above, the future looks bright!
Let’s pull a few more key quotes from the Textual Stream, shall we?
I wonder when we’re getting that 3rd Shadow slot- We’re a little past the next update… (I want a Shadow Eyedol- WITHOUT having to delete my Shadow Sabrewulf or Shadow Riptor!)
“Terror Skin packs.” Feels like it is implied that more Terror Skins are planned, doesn’t it? (I hope so!)
“A lot more players” (We’re working on the Steam version- Get ready for a boatload of incoming KI players and new fans!) “and surprises.” Sharkman confirmed. I do wish that we had more Shadow Lords missions- I love digging deeper into the lore of KI and expanding it with these new mini-adventures.
Cheer up, buttercups- It’s been vewy, vewy quiwet lately, but I have a pretty good feeling that the light at the end of this tunnel is rapidly approaching. In the meantime, buy the Omen Color Pack! Buy Gold Skins! Buy the Terror Skin Pack! Pick up Kilgore & Shin Hisako! Play with your favorite new content to show the KI Crew what you like the most of the new content! Oh, and above all else?
I think it’s almost this. This feels like they’re trying to solve some kind of problem that the community would think is big (cross play or cross buy or something else). Maybe the problem is a tough one, and they’re doing that thing everyone does at the office where they don’t e-mail back until they’ve already solved the problem.
I’m not that tech savvy. And the ppl asking about Windows 10 and such make me wonder…
If the Steam edition is an actual port w/ Windows 7 compatibility, and not just a route to buy/DL it from GFWL (or wtfever it’s called now), would cross-platform play even be possible? Would they be technically considered different games, even if it’s just a change in OS requirements, therefore incompatible for cross-play? Or would XBL, even w/ the port, just make things fine for a “different version” of the game?
These are the things we currently don’t know. Xbox One and Windows X run on similar architecture but they are different, and MS has supported cross platform play (in theory) to PS4. So cross play with the Steam version should be possible. But we don’t have any details at all, so we don’t know. everything we know about the Steam version, in its entirety is contained in a single sentence:
KI is coming to Steam.
We know, literally, nothing else about the Steam version. I think that’s ridiculous at this point.
I see that most of the IG team is working on another game now, so I don’t see KI getting any real attention anymore, beyond the steam release. At this point I wouldn’t be shocked if they just do the same thing Ultimate Source did, and just ignore everyone. They could very well have run into a issue putting it on steam, and rather than just say that, they will just keep quiet until people stop asking and the subject dies.
I guess that I am just old. I don’t get excited about games and DLC before they come out. Especially when they stop giving any form of update. I have seen to many games over the years that went from comming soon to nothing at all.
I can’t be the only one that wouldn’t be suprised if the steam version ends up not happening at all.
I’m pretty sure now that the flow of information regarding this is firmly on MS’s shoulders, based off what i read off Keits when he popped into the Twitch chat for Defend the North top 8 yesterday. And if that’s true, i really don’t understand what they’re waiting on at this point in time.
At this point, i’m hoping that when details are announced, all the details are announced at once. Release date, cross-play, cross-buy, functionality, requirements, price of game/characters/accessories, fight stick compatibility, the whole thing. Even Capcom, i believe, tried to make a commitment to give more information more frequently regarding its fighter. It’s been pretty much the initial announcement at Combo Breaker about 2 months ago and then a follow-up clarification notice maybe a week or two later. Zero-Dark Thirty since then.
Steam will work on a Mac. But the steam service does not convert the software to run on a Mac - meaning only software for which there is a Mac version will run through Steam on Mac (e.g. Not Killer Instinct - unless MS will be releasing a Mac version which seems unlikely).
Thread Necroed to talk about the fact that the Steam release is coming in “weeks not months.”
I don’t want to crab up the patch notes thread but I’m still wondering why this is so hard. If the release is weeks away why do we know nothing about it (cost, crossplay, cross buy, etc). Is there some magical moment in the next 6-8 weeks that I’m unaware of that makes more sense for them to announce these things?
everyone loves us. 
I do wish that we had more Shadow Lords missions- I love digging deeper into the lore of KI and expanding it with these new mini-adventures.
