I honestly believe the seasonal content approach for this game has not yet outlasted its usefulness, nor has this game reached the point where the container overflows. As it stands the game has now reached a point where I think they IG can more freely approach a new season with a little more freedom than in past seasons, as creativity will be less stifled by fan demands and business decisions.
They won’t be having to re-create the lighting for a new season, they won’t have the huge task of creating a pc port (merely upkeeping it in line with the console version for cross-compatible play), and they won’t have to worry about updating characters from previous games to fit into the new one now that the entirety of the original cast is in the new game. Finally, I think the game has reached the point where we don’t actually need any new gameplay mechanics on the system, not because the gameplay can’t handle it, but with the introduction of flipout and stagger this season, heavies ignoring armor, etc., the balance is basically on par to function with most fighting games out there now. SF series has dizzy states, SF4 has the crumple state, and we now have a similar state in the stagger animations. SF has reset style moves, and the flipout mechanic has given us reset style mechanics as well.
So with the system in a great balance where no real new gameplay mechanic for the overall system is necessary, they don’t have to tackle some of the giant obstacles they had to for the previous seasons, the next one can be one they can focus in on a lot more efficiently.
The can can probably survive with one last season under its belt, but I would also say we would be hard pressed to go beyond that. With the presence of the xbox Scorpio looming close by, there should be a push to eventually end the current iteration and begin anew with the new console and take advantage of the ridiculous horsepower it will bring with it. Until then, this KI is not as played out as some would think, so we would be REALLY crazy to try and push it further beyond a season 4. I think the best balance and mix of a fighting game roster can be obtained by having as low a roster count as you can get away with, where ~22 is about a good number, so we aren’t far off into unbalanced territory. When you exceed 30, then you are starting to overencumber the players with a lot of matchup data and extra knowledge that makes playing a little more mentally taxing. I feel like this came back to bite SF4 in the end, as they nearly approached 50 characters by then.
With the scorpio on the distance, but not there yet, we could make due with ONE more season. Though I would say, maybe it would be a good opportunity to get started on a sequel to this title if MS is indeed interested in one, especially if Scorpio dev kits are available, and when it launches, the game we get won’t launch with 6 characters, but can be around at least 16 or so, and have a more rich content experience with maybe a fully voice acted story mode, new villain ideas and concepts, a chance to do new things that the hex engine isn’t fully capable of, and a full graphical upgrade. I do like what KI is now, but if the specs on the new console are truly what MS is hyping, then a sequel should be able to tap into some super visuals and new imagery.
TL:DR We can do with maybe one more season, and that’s it. Otherwise, may be time to start considering the sequel, given the new hardware freedom coming, and that IG will have a better starting point for a sequel that working from scratch. Until then, the game isn’t played out yet, and still has plenty of life to it.