Important stuff PC players should know about Killer Instinct

General Discussion
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HUGE EDIT: Point 4 would apply from now on, but many people on PC confirmed Season 1 Ultra Pack that was available in January has been successfully delivered and functional on Windows 10. So, if you got that package in January, it’s yours and got the characters.

Hey there. Seen that only 10 days are missing before the KI’s launch on Windows 10 platforms, I decided to write a post regarding some important things PC players should know about this game.

PRELUDE

This post has the purpose of informing the newcomers about something they need to gather knowledge in a complete objective manner, without my personal opinions. Due to the lack of some important, essential information in a precise topic or some misleading sentences, I came out with this long, but considerable topic in order to enlighten PC players. But, most important reason of all, it has been written because I want to avoid the spamfest that might happen regarding some facts.
There are 5 interesting points you PC players should understand: 3 being good news, one being bad and the last being the worst. Let’s start then…from the best to the worst news.

GOOD NEWS

1) YOU DON’T NEED A SUBSCRIPTION TO PLAY KILLER INSTINCT (aka XBOX LIVE = / = XBOX GOLD)

The black beast of subscription is hanging around the park for a lot of time. In fact, there are still doubts among PC players about this matter: does Killer Instinct need a subscription in order to be played (like on Xbox) or not? Well, I’m glad to tell you the answer is NO: you don’t need it. Below you can see an extract of an answer given via twitter by Adam Isgreen, a man working with Microsoft:

Twit one.jpg642×738 95.2 KB

In fact Xbox Live and Xbox Gold are two different things. For the people who don’t know the difference because they don’t own a console or simply for other reasons, Xbox Live is the simple account you create via Xbox website, completely free, which you use in order to access for various features of Xbox, such as progresses registered via cloud, while Xbox Gold is a subscription required for Xbox owners in order to play online (it gives also some advantages, but it doesn’t matter here).

Considering the answer given by the twit, then, it’s obvious you don’t need to pay absolutely nothing in order to play online via Windows 10. All you need is just to create an account for Xbox and then get access via the Xbox Application that is available in the newest PC platform.

2) YOU DON’T NEED TO BUY A XBOX 360 CONTROLLER TO PLAY KI (aka x360ce)

Despite being said support for Xbox 360 controllers is present, Developers haven’t said a word regarding other types of controllers (fightsticks and general joysticks, like L******h). However, in case the settings or your loved periferic are messed up (if you played Dark Souls 2 on PC you know what I’m talking about), well, no worries, because there’s a program that can help you.

If you look in the net, by googling, you can find an application that can configure every kind of joystick like a xbox 360 controller. This would help you a lot, expecially if you can’t gather a microsoft periferical entertainment system in the brief terms of time (like me).

3) DEALS WITH GOLD PURCHASES ARE PERMANENT (aka gold once, discounted stuff forever)

This is the last good news you’re hearing here. But it’s something worth it. First of all, what are deals with gold? They are discounts on certain games/packs/DLCs that are given to gold subscribers for a certain period of time.

Well, the question here is legit: why should I spend 7 euros to get a discount? You’re right, but what if I tell you that every single player that has a Xbox Live account can get the gold trial subscription for one month at the cost of 0 dollars/euros? Exactly, that means you can use this trial to gather a Season for a discount price without worrying about spending cash to advance to gold. But the best thing is you keep every single purchase you did under this condition (hence deal with gold).

However, this good news is opening the path of the last two important points you should know, one being bad and correlated someway with point 3…and the last being the worst.

BAD NEWS

4) THE GAMES WITH GOLD STAY WITH GOLD (aka January 2016 S1 Ultra Combo bait)

Differently from Deals, Games with Gold aren’t yours forever. Or better, they stay in your account, but in order to play or use them, you need to renew your subscription to Gold again.

That said, I think a couple of you started to realize about the Season 1 Ultra pack given for free under this condition during the January of this year and, in order to get it, used their subscription trial. I feel sorry, but you wasted it…unless you want to renew the Gold subscription.

In fact different people from the PC bought something related to KI from Xbox Store just because of the big, huge deal of January. If you consider that Season 2 Pack was also on discount during the month of January, I let you imagine the rest. On the 29th March, some PC players that are convinced of having both seasons are going to get only one: the S2 pack they got with Deals.

The lack of answers from somebody of the higher floors about this matter during the month of December (in few words, if S1 Pack could be used even after the subscription expired) contributed to the bait and quite a number of PC players proceeded to the purchase of content.

So, in order to avoid further incomprehensions and to inform the PC players that got the S1 ultra in that period of time, remember to get packs in Games with Gold only, and only, if your intentions are to renew the subscription again. Otherwise, forget it.

5) KILLER INSTINCT ISN’T A (REAL) FREE TO PLAY GAME

Here we are. The worst news you could get is in front of your eyes. There’s a lot to tell you about this, but I’m going straight forward to the point.

If you think Killer Instinct is a free to play as Warframe, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, HearthStone, Heroes of the Storm or Gigantic (the newest Xbox One - Windows 10 Moba), well…you’re wrong.

Killer Instinct in reality is considered more than a demo, but a lot less than a free to play game. Surely, the FAQ written in this forum isn’t helpful despite giving hints. In fact, it hasn’t been written F2P, but free-to-download game, but when it comes to explain what the base game is, information is lacking. So I’m going to tell you what the base version includes:

  • 1 rotating character for free, changing in an undertermined period of time (from 2 to 5 weeks)
  • access to all gamemodes with said character
  • all the taunts, profiles, colours and costumes, except premium ones, can be gathered for free via experience points.
  • the fighters can’t be acquired for free, only via microtransactions in pure cash (5 euros per fighter or bundle offers).

In few words, if you thought you could get some essential stuff for free, you’re absolutely wrong. Unless changing this marketing strategy, you have to prepare your wallet if you want to have the full potential from Killer Instinct.

To conclude, here there is a quote explaining what KI is better and a topic I created 6 months ago regarding this matter:

http://forums.ultra-combo.com/t/lets-make-ki-a-real-free-to-play/1303

I hope you got all the information you needed. Remember this topic is also being created in order to avoid a constant spam of messages by newcomer PC players regarding these matters (I imagine in the first week from the release a ton of PC players coming here asking about the possibility of getting characters for free or about the subscription matter).

So, if you have any complaints, at the pact being constructive, you’re invited to write here and not to create 10485853254389598 various topics on the same argument.

It will be a courtesy, at last, if a moderator (Skeletal, I know you’re there) could pin this topic up so in order for the beginners to have it always under their eyes.

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I was worried about if I need to pay Gold to play online or not… That’s cool.

Another thing that I was worried about. So I can play KI with my 10 years old PS2 Controller with Adapter. Maybe I need x360ce to work properly, but I played some PC games without x360ce like Skullgirls, USF4, Dark Souls, so yeah. Neat!

EDIT: x360ce doesn’t work, but there’s another alternative: You can use Xoutput (Works well with any generic controller, and it works for me), check this post on Reddit, it shows how to install it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/killerinstinct/comments/4ciyx5/steps_to_getting_xoutput_to_work_with_ki_pc/

Yesterday I bought S2 with DwG. Cool!

Well… There goes my Gold Trial… That sucks, man… RIP me :sob:

I already knew it since KI was released. It’s a F2D (Free to download) indeed, but now as I bought S2 and S3, this won’t be an issue for me.

CONCLUSION:

So… about S1, I will wait until reduce its price, otherwise, I’m gonna buy the Combo Breaker version. The only S1 character I have is Shadow Jago, so I’m gonna stick with him (also i’m gonna play with S2 + S3 characters, ofc).

Edit: Seriously, this is just absurd that Windows 10 PC games are getting the Xbox One restrictions, like the Games with Gold bait (It was also promoted at KIWC), it’s so frustrating… I hope in the future, the KI Coins for those who pre-ordered S3, like me, works also to unlock characters (S1 in my case), like SFV’s Zenny Tokens or League of Legends RP (Riot Points), that would be nice.

By the way, thank you for the info, good to know. :smiley:

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So wait, how do I know if a game is on sale or not if I haven’t activated the trial yet?
This stuff is so confusing, I just want to have all the characters…

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The season 1 characters are with deals with gold at the moment right…I believe Sabrewulf is only 1 dollar at the moment…might be an option for you…

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Yeah, I know Wulf is 80% off with DwG, but the bad news is I don’t have a credit card anymore (I borrowed my father’s card). Now I have to wait until next month to get my own card, maybe in the future I’ll be planning to buy S1 (at least, the Combo Breaker version).

But thanks for the info anyways.

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Every month, on the xbox official website, they tell you which games are in gold and which ones are in deal with gold.

So you know exactly how to act. For example, if Microsoft is going to give S2 on Games with Gold, I suggest everyone that hasn’t bought anything in the game yet to go for a long time subscription, expecially if you got the S1 ultra in the same matter.

Why? Because it’s still convenient. So Games with gold is a double edge: bad news for people like me that bought S2 on Deals and Shadow Jago, good news for any other that just used the gold for S1 Ultra.

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The only thing on sale right now is the season 2 ultra pack and Sabrewulf, right?

If I buy the ultra pack do I get to keep the characters after my trial is over?

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If the ultra pack is in Deals with Gold, then yes.

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Ok thanks, last thing, if I buy it now, will it work on PC?

Because in this page they’re talking about activiting it by logging in on an Xbox one? And that’s not a thing I can do…

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Yes, it will work on PC. You only need to do that if you already play the game on a xbox one.

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ummm you might want to add pc version also has cross-save cross-buy with XB1

thats a pretty big positive that you omitted.

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last week it was Jago, so assuming they’re going by release date, you could buy the entire S1 cast in about 6-7 weeks for 1/5th the price.

you should include this with the good news or the “middle ground” news. if you bought S1 with the intent to play it on PC upon release, the game would still be on your account so you could still take advantage of it. its only a disadvantage on console.

Well it is. its just very cleverly worded. It does the same as any other F2P game if you claim that

You get all the essential stuff (Character, stages, modes) for free, its the cosmetic stuff that’s locked away (apart from online, which is locked for any supported game unless you have Gold on Xbox anyway). I see that you have stated this in your linked post, so if you understand that, you must understand that this point of yours is invalidated.

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Here’s a thing, from the Xbox page:

“Games with Gold offer for paid Gold members only; active Gold membership required to play downloaded Xbox One games”

So KI being a cross-buy game, and the active Gold restriction applies only with Xbox One games, so basically you already have the Win10 version in your account if you claimed from GwG.

We just need an official confirmation for this. @rukizzel

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Sorry, but you can’t get characters freely unless by paying. Getting one character in rotation isn’t the same concept. If you read it carefully, I made a paragon with other games (like Warframe or Gigantic).

In Gigantic you earn virtual currency by playing which you use to unlock characters. In KI you can’t. A F2P on PC = / = F2P on console. So, under this point of view, I didn’t say anything wrong. Unless, of course, there’s a way to get characters permanently via virtual currency or in another way that isn’t real cash, but there shouldn’t be any by now.

Regarding Games with Gold: I know it was you that gave me that piece of information about the S1 Ultra being available, however I have to tell you were wrong. But I’m glad you were the only one that answered at least.

You have to know that 15 days later, Rukari said something related and confirmed my utter fear: you can’t use S1 Ultra Pack you got in Games with Gold without subscription, even on PC. He showed me also the final part of the contract where this was clearly stated. So, actually, it’s bad news because PC players have wasted the trial period (you couldn’t play KI in January on PC, of course).

At last, regarding my very first topic: what I’ve said was expressing ideas on how to change the game (and if you noticed, at the beginning there were flames and thunders).

That’s the thing Rukizzel showed me, confirming this is the same for PC.

Now answering to Quicktime: yep, you’re right. However it was stated already in the FAQ. I just pointed out stuff that wasn’t available via obvious channels or wasn’t clear.

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True, but those games do have a lot of options to sell for money. KI has characters, colors and costumes. So its the (so far) the best model for an F2P fighting game.

@rukizzel if you wouldn’t mind spending a little bit of time clarifying this? Since an XBL subscription is not required to play on KI on Windows 10, if you bought the game during the sale and now would like to start playing with the PC release, would you have to buy the game or does the January purchase carry over to the account on PC?

I do not wish to be demeaning or rude, I agreed with the other things in your post and I wanted to discuss those bits with you in more detail.

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Don’t worry. In fact the topic is here on purpose: to discuss.

However, that’s why I suggested a couple of things to make the game more interesting. Also Killer Instinct has many options to make money, if IG wants. Think about the newest S3 cosmetics: some of them can’t be acquired with just ultra pack.

I think they realized the great power of the major F2Ps around PC and are converting to that system, little by little. This would benefit everyone. Except the dark side.

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Yeah. About the KI Gold, as I know, KI Gold (which implies micro-transactions) is used to unlock accessories, colors, icons, character quotes, XP Boosters, etc. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I hope we can use this KI Gold to unlock characters, and possibly their respective retro costumes:

I found this discussion very interesting, for real. :grin:

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Fun little tidbit about the games with gold season one. It seems that the xbone simply views the ultra pack as dlc, not as the game itself, and since they can’t lock away installed dlc like they can with an installed game you can actually keep using it after gold expires. My friend has it installed and can still use it despite only using a gold trial in January.

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Really? That makes sense, actually.

The GwG restriction only applies with games, but doesn’t apply with DLC as you said. That’s interesting. So you will keep the S1 content that you claimed from GwG.

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If that’s so, we can party hard, boys. But I should change the piece of information over there, waiting for a confirmation.

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