I should preface this post with why I believe a KI sequel will happen.
KI is aging, I don’t think anyone will argue that.
The graphics? Still top of the line.
How about the gameplay? Still some of the most fun in the industry.
But with Project Scorpio and the PS4 Neo soon to come, the bar is about to be raised all over again! The next wave of fighting games will be dropping over the next few years. Likley starting with MK11 and then moving on to Street Fighter VI. And some other fighters that I’m not too familiar with scattered and buried under the big names.
These games will CRUSH the standards that we have set for a modern fighting game! And KI as the platform it’s advertised as will be left behind… why you ask? Didn’t Microsoft advertise the Scorpio as a simple upgrade to the Xbox One?
They say everything that runs on the Scorpio will run on the Xbox One as well. But that’s not realistic, especially for fighting games. One day a developer will come up to Microsoft (or Sony respectively) and say:
“Hey, we’ve got this amazing feature we really want to add in our next game! But we can only do it with Scorpio’s hardware… The Xbox One version will have to go without it…”
Or better yet, what if with the next Halo game 343 Industries went to Microsoft and said:
“OK so the way things are now, Halo 6 can run at 4K 60FPS on Scorpio (Yeah right…) but the Xbox One version can only run at 1080P at 30FPS.”
OR BETTER YET
“Hey Microsoft, in Killer Instinct Season 4, we can introduce a total graphics update AND the game will run at 4K on Scorpio! But The Xbox One version can’t support this upgrade. Meaning the Xbox One version will have worse graphics.”
See the problem? These kinds of scenarios will divide communities. Soon we will get games only releasing for Scorpio and people will be forced to upgrade. Not much you can do about that, it’s inevitable.
Not only that, but say KI didn’t change at all and Microsoft didn’t plan a better looking (and playing) sequel. That new wave of fighting games? Well you can kiss our casual userbase goodbye because when those BEAUTIFUL looking games hit the market, everyone will be playing those instead.
I don’t have anything to prove this, but I’ll risk a guess and say that over half of the people who purchased this game were casuals who will leave the second SFVI for Scorpio hits the shelves.
No way did Microsoft bring KI back to let it die all over again. And don’t worry guys, I am 99.9% sure KI is here to stay for a looong time.
So that’s it. From a business perspective that’s why I believe there will be a KI sequel. On to the point of this post!
In this completely hypothetical KI sequel, the gameplay needs to be improved and built upon. I brought this up in another thread and was asked what I would do. And honestly? I have no clue…
So let’s start from scratch. Forget everything you know about this KI (including the combo system) and tell me what you would do to improve the gameplay for the sequel!