They didn’t get nearly as much flak for their lootbox system, which is absolutely fair because you had the options to play with or without it. The lootbox system itself was your typical terrible mix of randomized loot based on a rarity level with grind-encouraging prices. Yes you also won boxes out of some matches and all the Multiverses and challenges but the system remained the same, not to mention the fact that some of the most fun abilities were locked behind lootboxes sort of forcing you into using it and thereby creating “longevity” because of the grind.
Yeah that was really impressive! I’m still thumbing through it and really enjoying it. I love that they put the character evolutions across each game. Can’t really read it on my phone, but that’s not a big deal. Just the fact that this exists makes me happy.
True, but I kinda feel like Injustice 2 came out before the storm, which wasn’t really kicked off until the Fall when Shadow of War and (especially) Battlefront 2 got people tearing their hair out over lootboxes. I vaguely recall reading a few articles that made mention of Injustice 2, but none of them focused on the game to any great extent by any stretch of the imagination.
See and this is why I wonder if a system like this will fly in a post-Battlefront 2 world. It probably will, but ya never know. If enough MK fans get ■■■■■■ enough, and which is entirely possible, NRS and (more likely) WB could draw some real criticism.
Personally, none of what they did with the multiverse or with the lootbox system got me interested in playing Injustice 2 long term. Maybe it’s because the roster didn’t interest me as much, maybe it’s because I love MK, but just like Injustice, maybe it’s because I’m really hoping Injustice 3 is just Batman, his allies and his rogues gallery, but the repetitive nature of the grind in Injustice 2 was probably the main factor in me losing interest in it almost immediately.
So while I might play MKXI a bit longer with a mode like this, I really can’t say for certain, as this whole thing just wasn’t fun or exciting enough to feel like anything more than an attempt to get me to spend money.
That said, NRS is usually pretty great at keeping a lot of their ideas separate between Injustice and MK, so who knows, maybe they’ll have something totally different. A small part of me wonders though if that whole “Timelines” graphic, which I believe was proven fake, turns out to have something to do with a multiverse-esque mode where you play through tons of different timelines in order to unlock stuff. I could see them doing that, even if it’s really similar to what they did in Injustice 2.
Hopefully we’ll find out soon either way!
On a side note, I wonder what kind of mode they could put in MK that would be a really long, self-sustaining mode that would keep players interested and unlocking stuff long term. Faction Wars didn’t really do much for me, and while I enjoyed the living towers, that also felt kinda grindy, and the rewards usually didn’t justify the effort. Sure, playing the game is its own reward, no doubt, but if it’s supposed to be something that, in and of itself, keeps fans coming back long term, I don’t know if MK’s really hit the bullseye just yet. What do you think?
You could also attribute it to the fact that all pieces of loot made your characters look cooler and you saw it all the time, with yours or some else’s. Some of these cosmetic bits of loot like badges, or emblems tend to get lost because they’re not really visible as often as the Gear.
Pretty much, yea. Injustice 2 worked because it offered a lot of single player content (repetitive but still a lot) in a fairly balanced game of recognized characters so lootboxes became a minor complaint.
I’m a huge fan of the DC universe, even more so with the Injustice universe because of the story. Some things I don’t agree with (like the way Nightwing died), but they’ve some really solid steps in the narrative making me invested in it all. Given the chance, we would probably all do it differently (like the way Nightwing died), so I like to absorb this vision more than I would care for what I wanted in it (like changing the way Nightwing died). Its worked out though, I quite like the roster for the most part and apart from loot grinding, I can’t say that I have any reason to not play the game. The Multiverses are repetitive, but the modifiers and little bits of background for quests add some fun, make it a little more bearable. They’re really just practice towers to be honest, the modifiers make you focus on singular aspects of the game and work your play around them, similar to KI’s Guardians.
I liked the gameplay, and the fact that its a modern FG with the Turtles playable in it, almost guarantees that I will play for a while. That’s just me, I can understand why the entire package may not be for everyone. To my benefit, I’ve found a growing local Tekken community with some IJ2 players and its fun playing offline with them so that keeps me coming back too.
I honestly do not know what they will do next. I really hope its MK Karts again but that’s just me being silly. I’m gonna guess the story will go messing with timelines again somewhere, seeing as how Raiden is the bad guy now and somone’s gonna try to turn him back. NRS has done well with turning Superman evil, but I dunno if they’ll continue that with Raiden. Not unless they have a badass character to take his place as the moral compass/guide of the good guys, i can’t think of one so let me know.
I’m probably still gonna buy the latest one, because I have people to play against now. I’m still curious about it, I thought there would be something at Combo Breaker but with E3 in a few weeks, it makes sense to hold off. Here’s to some gameplay and content info! 
I don’t know. I didn’t get into grinding for loot in Injustice 2 either, but I think the system was overall pretty well received. It’s mostly cosmetic and you can toggle the status effects on and off. Most reviews were glowing and although lots of people got tired of it before they got all the loot they wanted I think overall it is viewed very positively. Whereas with Battlefront even the people (like me) who didn’t see what the fuss was about didn’t LIKE the loot boxes.
This was an interesting video.
I get the bad feeling that MK11 won’t be announced at E3.
A leak showed the games that will be shown at Sony’s E3 presentation and MK11 is not among them.
(but leaks don’t have to be true)
NRS normally shows a reveal trailer one week before E3.
We still don’t have anything!
I really hope I’m wrong…
Patience.
Was it? I dunno, it’s always hard to cut through the noise and find a real consensus on something like this, if such a thing even exists, but I tended to hear more often then not that people were annoyed by how much farming had to be done, just to get a good loot box, just to find out it was something they already had or didn’t need or whatever. I could certainly be wrong on that and it’s actually possible I might be projecting a little here.
Either way, I’m sure they’ll find some way to work some sort of element in to the game that involves grinding or paying real money to bypass that grind. With MK, I hate to say that I’m probably more willing to put up with it if the gameplay is fun enough and the rewards are worth it, but with Injustice 2, neither really rose to that level for me. Again, I enjoyed the game, and I had a few characters I really liked using, but probably not enough to spend hours and hours grinding just to get that complete Harley or Scarecrow outfit I really wanted. So for me, it was probably equal parts grind and reward that didn’t do it for me, so that’s probably more just me than anything else.
It seems unlikely that they’d skip such a massive event to reveal and show off their new game, especially when they’ve followed the exact same path for four straight games now. I mean, it’s theoretically possible that they holf off until Gamescom, but again, that goes against what they’ve been doing so consistently; almost like clockwork. Boon’s already more or less confirmed what they’re working on, so let’s just wait and see.
We’ve had a lot of news drop in the last week or so, I don’t think the well will dry up in the next few days leading up to the show.
Part of me is now kinda hoping that they buck their recent trend and show up on Microsoft’s stage on Sunday. While I want to see as many exclusives as humanly possible, this is one exception I’d be more than willing to make. 
Without a doubt MK11 is getting announced at E3 this weekend.
Take this with a grain of salt but I have a strong suspicion MK11 is going to be apart of the Xbox conference this year instead of Sony. I say this because Xbox is desperately looking to build up their library with exclusives and some sort of exclusive DLC on their console for that game would help a lot especially since KI isn’t their priority anymore for the foreseeable future. This is good business for them because Xbox knows that the last Mortal Kombat game (MKX) sold 7 million copies so that’s a lot of publicity.
The reason for doing this is so they can announce that a couple Killer Instinct guest characters are coming to MK11. This would make a ton of sense being that Ed and Ken have been discussing doing this for ages and even @TempusChaoti has been teasing more NRS interaction. ( I believe it was in that NRS should work on KI thread)
Even if this is just wild speculation on my part, if you really think about it the chances of this happening are quite high and make sense. Then when 
4 comes out they will have MK characters in it.
…but then again these characters being exclusive to Xbox means they would be banned from all tournaments.
1 Like
That fake paper is floating around Facebook …its so fake.
But I find there to be some problems.
You said “a couple Killer Instinct guest characters”, I don’t think they will make more than one KI character.
Injustice 2 had two MK characters so it isn’t impossible but it would be lazy, let it have more creative/requested quests.
Thinking about crossover characters, if they but a KI character in MK it should be a creature like Eyedol, Glacius, Hisako (since she seems to be popular) and so on. Something you don’t see in other fighting games. Jago, Fulgore and so on are either too generic or similar to already existing MK characters. (why play Orchid if you have Sonya or Cassie, why Thunder if you have Nightwolf, why Kan-Ra if you have Ermac…)
But I think any MK character would fit into KI.
But I’m overall not a fan of console exclusive characters. Let them be in all versions or don’t have them at all!
I always fell like the Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition isn’t complete because Kratos isn’t in it.
Interesting. My guess would be that if it appears on Microsoft’s stage, and that’s a BIG if right now, there would either be timed exclusivity for DLC, which could be a pretty solid grab for MS. Or yeah, some sort of Killer Instinct pack that’s exclusive for Xbox. I think that’d be rather smart. I’m sure fans of both series’ would be happy about this. Do you think they’d really leave Sony fans with nothing though? No Sony pack of their own?
I dunno.
Curious who would be in that KI pack. Classics only? Maybe one new character? I think Fulgore would be a given. Maybe Orchid too. Who else? Sabrewulf? Spinal? Glacius? Jago? Cinder? Tusk? Mira? Hisako?
Either way, it’d be interesting. I don’t think NRS would ever give exclusive MK characters to the Xbox version without doing the same for Sony, but I think that’d really anger people.
I think timed would be the correct way to handle it. Like I mentioned there is basically no point in doing something like this if PS4/PC players never got to play the characters and they would always be banned from tournament if they were locked to Xbox forever.
I could see them doing maybe 2 KI guest characters max in MK11, I think anymore than that would probably be overkill. Concerning which characters they would chose to add selfishly I’d want Orchid for obvious reasons but speaking from a logical standpoint she would probably be too similar to MK mainstays like Sonya or Cassie Cage. Similarly Fulgore doesn’t make much sense either because they already have their versions of cybernetic killer robots in Cyrax, Smoke etc. Being that as it may at the same time they would have to chose characters that are more iconic from the series that people would know the most about and Fulgore, Jago, and Orchid hit the nail on the head. While characters who fill tropes that MK is currently missing like a dinosaur (Riptor) or flying Gargoyle (Gargos), I don’t think they would interest too many players.
Quite frankly though as you mentioned I’m not a fan of console exclusive DLC or characters either but being biased I think it would be good publicity for KI leading up to KI4.
1 Like
Each day that goes by I become more excited. Deliver me to kombat, Boon
There’s a rumour that it won’t be MK11, but an MK: Shaolin Monks 2.
He made a poll or something on Twitter and MKSM2 won.
1 Like
I mean, MK 11 is a certainty. If it doesn’t show up at E3 it will show up somewhere. But I think @itzLCD you are letting wishful thinking get in the way of logic in this. Sure, MS could use some exclusive content and a big name win. But where is the evidence that they think MK is that sort of franchise. Plus, what’s in it for NRS? They clearly have the money to make MK11 (or at least a great case to make for financing the development of the game). They aren’t desperate for cash (Ahem, Capcom, cough cough) and any sort of exclusivity only alienates them from their fanbase and causes controversy. And not the gory fatality controversy that they thrive on the “why is NRS being so cruel to their PS4 fanbase?” kind.
I wouldn’t say I would eat my hat if NRS shows their trailer at the MS show and if it pops up with “runs best on Xbox One X.” I would be surprised, but not astonished. But any sort of exclusivity deal, timed or otherwise? Seems incredibly unlikely to me.
I just… want Ed to be able to breath…
Well I wouldn’t care either way if it happened or not, I’m just thinking in terms of Microsoft needing a fighting game to promote on their console; perhaps they don’t care about FGs anymore who knows but if they did MK11 would be the first logical choice considering a new KI game I’m sure is still a ways off.
NRS doesn’t really need to work with anyone since they are an independent developer (and not struggling financially) but given the relationship between Ed Boon and Ken Lobb I think realistically it wouldn’t be too far fetched for them to work with MS over Sony in terms which console they should promote it on, especially if the play was to put KI characters in it.
1 Like
When they (MS) HAD a fighting game to promote they did not, so I doubt anything other than what was supposedly exclusive will get more attention, just saying-
Well, to be fair, they’d be pointless for tourney players. For the rest of the player base, it might be pretty cool to see some Killer Instinct characters facing off against Mortal Kombat characters.
That said, given how much more NRS has tried to invest in the tourney scene, it does seem doubtful that they’d say “well we’ve poured a lot of money in to this, how about we add a whole pack of DLC that’s only tied to one system and wouldn’t be tourney viable.”
So I hear ya.
Yeah it’d all depend on if they’re trying to get the most popular or easily identifiable KI characters, or if they’re trying to select characters that sort of fill roles that they don’t really have in MK. I’m sure it could be a combination of those factors or even other factors as well.
But if they lean more toward the latter, I’d have to think that Fulgore and either Spinal or Orchid would be at the top of their list. If it’s more the latter, than maybe Sabrewulf, Kan Ra, Tusk, or Mira? I know they have a vampire, but it’s not as if Nitara gets a ton of usage in MK games.
They didn’t actually develop the first Shaolin Monks though, did they? I thought that was handled by a different team. Maybe I’m mistaken. Not that it matters, but yeah, Shaolin Monks 2 would be bitter sweet for me. On one hand, I’d LOVE to see a next gen sequel to the first MK:SM. On the other hand, I really don’t want that being the next MK game. I mean that’d put an actual MK sequel what, four more years away? Six? I can’t recall the timeline off the top of my head for some reason, but I really don’t want to wait THAT long for the storyline to continue or for a new MK fighting game.
Well, to be fair, a developer or publisher doesn’t have to be strapped for cash to want more money. I mean, it’s not like Square Enix is hurting for money, but MS was still able to finagle a year of exclusivity for Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Granted, Phil said that they weren’t going to do stuff like that anymore. All I’m saying though is that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that NRS, or more likely WB, would be okay with getting some extra cash, even if some Sony fans are alienated a bit. I mean, they put Kratos in MK9 and he was Sony exclusive, wasn’t he?
Serious question, and I honestly don’t know the answer, but would a two pack or four pack of KI or MS characters really be that damaging outside the echochamber of the FGC (which usually tends to look down on MK regardless), or might the negativity generated by some in the hardcore base be loud enough to mitigate whatever financial gain WB or NRS were to get?
Obviously this is all hypothetical, as I doubt something like this would happen. I think it’d be fun to see some KI characters faceoff against MK characters, and it’d be kinda cool to see how NRS would interpret some of the KI characters, so it’d suck a bit if having a few of these characters in the game would really make so many people angry. Maybe Sony fans could get some characters too, I guess? I wouldn’t mind seeing Sweet Tooth in MK.
Yeah, I agree. As much as I don’t think WB would balk getting paid by MS, I don’t really see enough incentive on either side to do something like this. You anger the tourney fans, you anger the core base that only on PS4, you anger Sony console war enthusiasts and you probably give a number of FGC snobs more reasons to complain about MK.
Sure, WB might look at all the downsides and say “yeah… But money…” but I tend to doubt it. I also doubt that MS wants to throw themselves in to the eye of the FGC storm again when enough people were angry about SFV going console exclusive. Sure, people were mad at Sony, right up until they realized that the game wouldn’t have been made otherwise. Then it seemed to become more of a “why did you do anything to prevent this or why didn’t you get SF, Microsoft? You just lost the biggest game in the genre to your competitor.”
So yeah… Maaaaaaaybe if this shows up on Microsoft’s stage, which I still kinda doubt, maybe Xbox owners get DLC like… A week early, or something. But even that’s a stretch.
1 Like