Because their faults aren’t exactly so minor and because I don’t support the “good enough” mentality that their work seems to be largely based around, if not encourage, something symptomatic of this “develop as you go” style gaming brought on by the whole Seasons thing. Because I’m not some mindless sheep that will complacently and blindly accept whatever’s given no questions asked. I prefer to think about things and see the details in their entirety, good and bad, especially in relation to how it positively and negatively affects KI as a series. Granted, every developer is bound to make mistakes from time to time, if not face problems during development, be it due to lack of time, budget, crunch time, etc - not unheard of. That said, there are developers that would make every effort to rectify their mistakes and push their very best foot forward, some of them even more vulnerable with fewer teams in their studios, if any, with barely any backing, if at all in comparison. IG is competent at what they do, but in no shape or form would I say that they are outstanding in their work. Their main line of work had been in ports, but from the few games they had under their belt, they aren’t devs that inspire confidence. Yes, I know, the same could be said of DH given the bad games they themselves had made, BUT, with that in mind, they also had a history of making good games back when they were Shiny and The Collective, with people that had been involved with Tekken, “Skullgirls” and “Weaponlord”. IG borrows a LOT from “Street Fighter”, especially in the moves, which really makes me think that they had really wanted to make an SF game (although to be fair, who wouldn’t?). IG had also developed the port for “Arkham Knight”, a port so notoriously awful that Warner Bros had to issue an apology, along with “Extinction”, a game considered to be one of the worst games of the year. And their art style is so generic it’s not even funny.
If a developer were to do a new KI, I would want them to make sure that everything would be up to snuff, including story, art, animations, music, and gameplay, and that KI would be given a bigger budget. “Good enough” doesn’t win the awards nor ensures a longer lasting legacy, nor does it save moribund franchises from getting canned. “Good enough” is just “good enough”, and as a fan, you should be concerned and hold them accountable, if not hold a higher standard. Loyalty to a series and/or developer is one thing, but blind loyalty is dangerous.
People will buy it because of there being a new KI, that I don’t doubt, but that won’t matter if the game itself is developed via the same method on an even smaller budget and if they make the same mistakes, if not even worse ones and the game ends up becoming $hit as a result. You could have great netcode, but if your game is a turd, no amount of good netcode in the world will save it.
In terms of developers, NRS would be ideal given their pedigrees with “Injustice” and the MK games. Whatever issues you might have with them, these guys do know their stuff and have the awards to prove they’re more than capable of making a good KI game. IG is competent, but again, very much a “good enough” developer. Ideally I’d like it if these guys were the last resort if all else fails. Rare would be a logical choice given the fact that they’re the ones who made KI in the first place, but a lot of the staff that had made the previous KIs had left, plus Rare as it is is reluctant, if not disinterested in doing more stuff with their existing series. Playtonic Games is made up of a lot of core staff from Rare, including KI, so, arguably they’d be the perfect go-to people for potentially making a new KI.
