Lucas also revolutionized hollywood … the impacts of Star Wars have basically changed movie making… so regardless of the prequels and special editions, his influence will be longer felt than most filmmakers and hollywood execs.
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He also made remasters with awful CGI and midichlorians.
thats fine but that doesn’t change the contributions him and his team did…
so what did MS and KI contribute?
good netcode for everyone to compare too? unique characters?
You and Infil are both right and I should have clarified. An NRS-style story mode is preposterous on this budget, but my understanding is that the animation is what takes the most time and expense. So why not just have still images (or slightly moving ones, a la MKX endings) with the voice actors talking in the background? I’d love to hear Orchid talk more, or Thunder - we haven’t heard from them story wise in a very long time. There are some good artists involved with this project - look at the KI Novella work. I’m sure you could patch a nice story together that establishes a canon on a budget. Get fourteen chapters, four fights per chapter, one or two moving images per fight. Pay the artist $30 per picture and pay the voice actors for a couple of hours each. Charge $1.99 for the story addition and you make your money back.
I know it’s not that simple, but given the contract work I’ve done in the past it’s not far off either. Maybe I’m biased because I’m a writer and I can think of a dozen ways to do this story (Seriously, @TempusChaoti, @TheKeits, PM me and I’ll write this for free in one night and sign it over to you for credit), but you’ve really got a neat universe in KI that could stand on its own and generate ancillary, spin-off revenue. Some of us just really like these characters and want to hear more about them - and incidentally, getting people emotionally invested in your characters is how you get demand for a sequel. One of the key reasons SF3 bombed commercially was the lack of connection it had to the SF2 characters everyone loved and the incoherent storyline that gave you no reason to care about the newcomers; fast forward fifteen years and despite both MK9 and SFIV doing great, NRS gets fifty million dollar budgets and Capcom has to turn to Sony for life support after Disney messes with their Marvel license. And they haven’t learned a thing, unless you think Ed and yet another story about Bison having some sort of Psycho Weapon will move more units of SFV.
It’s not all about gameplay, which KI has in spades - Halo and Goldeneye were both revolutionary shooters for their day, but Halo spawned a lucrative universe and Goldeneye was a one-off. Microsoft and IG have put a ton of time into KI and own it outright, yet as a lot of people have indicated in this thread, the path ends here unless they can create demand for another iteration. I think a story ending this chapter could be a way to launch hype for the next one – MK9, MKX and Injustice story mode playthroughs collectively have over ten million views on Youtube – and as a bonus playing KI is in and of itself a rewarding experience. With no third party (i.e. DC) in the way and the game’s roster at its limit, this is the logical next step to squeeze more money from the franchise, IMO. Unless they just want to call it quits, which they are totally within their rights to do but might leave money and potential goodwill on the board.
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Something else they could do…didn’t they just get a new KI comic commissioned? They could work with whoever’s doing it to make a few comic panels for each character and story point. IMHO that would be pretty cool.
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This sounds amazing, and if it’s something that MS / IG could manage, I’d be 100% down for that! Honestly, however they want to mix it up. Whether it’s still pictures with voice actors doing their thing over them or animated still pictures or dossiers or reused animations with voice overs or new movie-like sequences… Any and all of them. The more info we get, the more info they’re able to spread out over a whole mode like Shadow Lords, the better.
Now, I’m guessing you’re more referring to a mode more dedicated to the story than Shadow Lords might be, but honestly, I think it’s the perfect place because there’s so many opportunities to do different things in this mode and throw a variety of content at the player whether it’s equipment they need, or rewards like skins, stages, or lore delivered in a wide variety of ways.
I still think it’d be awesome if they could have a tournament mission that opened up a 32 character bracket for a KI Tournament that was held for lore reasons, where the player would start with one of their three characters and advance through the tournament, playing matches and unlocking story on what’s happening to their character and around them, but also giving them the choice to switch characters, maybe matches get interrupted for story reasons, etc.
Whether it’s dossiers or pictures with voice over or a combination of the two with other stuff, like maybe a big cut scene at the end or reused animations with the narrator voice speaking over them, it’d be cool to have a substantial event that plays out in a cohesive, narrative fashion like this, and I think Shadow Lords could be a great place for it. Maybe beating this mode unlocks a tournament mode offline and online with brackets? Maybe certain characters can unlock alt outfits?
They could put tons of stuff in this mode for players to find based on what decisions they make, which characters they start with, etc.
So yeah, to your point, @DesirousCat3658, I do think that they could put together a story mode without it having to be NRS-style (and budget) and it’s something I’d personally love to see. I want to know more about the characters, but I also want to know more about what they’re doing in their subplots and also within the main plotline(s) and how those are also advancing.
I think it’d be cool if, at the end, Gargos wins the tournament and turns the world in to a post-apocalyptic hellscape and what that might mean for the heroes, the villains, and the big bad villain going forward. But maybe that’s just me. 
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Even if they don’t release anymore characters, there’s still possibility for more content. They can still release costume packs (still wanting that KI 2 pack), they can still add new game modes (and finish story mode), they can still add an old school arcade ladder, there’s expanding on the Shadow Lord content, they can add more daily challenge content, and they can expand the lore of the franchise. Plus I’m thinking we are still waiting on mod support.
There’s still options…it just depends on whether or not the publisher is still interested in investing into the product.
I bought the DE for Windows 10, so I’ve invested $40 in the game thus far. If they want to add more costume sets, or even go for season 4, I’m down.
Physical goods too, like a high quality Hisako floral pattern print zip hoody.
I really don’t feel like this is it. I feel like season 4 is a safe bet. A Season 5 is also not out of the cards either. I’m personally enjoying the seasonal approach and wouldn’t mind if it kept going imo. I cant see them asking about those survey charcters then not following thru. Also with all the big game companies talking about the whole “games as a service” thing it just feels like we got a lot more coming our way.
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I don’t know man. A lot of pro SFV players or Netherrealm players have said they would play the game on PC but then looked the other way. I doubt having it on PS4 would suddenly mean Justin Wong and others would focus on KI.
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The problem is that Win10 has bad controller support, so all that people who wanted to play in PC can’t use their sticks and have to buy new ones for only that game, which is absurd.
No, I agree, they wouldn’t make it their focus. Many of them might not even play. But it would see longer tournament success if it was on PS4, simply because all events run PS4. People who want to mess around and try KI for the first time at a casual station at an event would have a stick/controller that they are comfortable with ready to use.
But like I said, I understand why it’s not on PS4, nor do I expect MS to suddenly release the game on a competing system. It’s just the reality of a fighting game based on an MS property these days; it will become a harder and harder sell at tournaments as PS4 becomes more and more entrenched. And I fully blame MS for screwing up their gigantic lead in the FGC from the 360 days (the larger company, not any of the specific people on the KI team).
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Do you think Brook Converters being available at tournaments (and casual stations) would help with this?
Sure, it could help but I don’t think tourney organizers are gonna invest in a bunch of brook converters and leave them lying around.
I would say to do what Bars do. Take something as collateral, like an ID.
It would work. But remember you want to make it as easy as possible for people.
I appreciate @Infilament’s insight on the tournament scene, and nothing about the Xbox One has aggravated me more than the fightstick issue - compounded by even more controller stupidity with the PC port controller compatibility. I know most of the money from consoles comes from selling controllers, but since you can’t even buy an Xbox One fightstick at this point it seems obvious that controller policy has hurt KI’s exposure to players in the FGC.
Having said that, Smash is a thing and so is (or was) Pokken. Both require special hardware and controllers. Smash especially tends to be a “separate” scene from the rest of the FGC, but it is a scene nonetheless. With KI’s online functionality and high profile online tournaments, and with KI focused events like KIWC, I wouldn’t blame MS for not really thinking that the locals and weeklies where people show up for fun are not a necessity to build up KI’s competetive community.
Eagle is the 29th character. Strange number to stop at right? I’m pretty sure rukizzel said that the next character (eagle) isn’t the last character, and besides we still have the tsar left to go(Mira’s master).
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I’d be very surprised if @rukizzel had directly confirmed or denied that Eagle will be the last character released for the game. That’s just not how they do it. The may have a proposal for more waiting for final approval or they may have half a Season’s worth of new content already developed that they aren’t ready to announce - or they may have decided to flat out end the game. But they will have a communications plan that they stick with regarding announcements etc. Incidentally, I wouldn’t expect to see a “KI is now done” announcement, ever. Nothing good could come out of that from the developers point of view.
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He didn’t say either way, but part of his job is to manage expectations and he hasn’t yet said “that’s all folks”
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As stated above - we like to dance around subjects that are definite in nature. You know, only a Sith speaks in absolutes. 
When it comes to KI, though, anything is possible. These extra few characters weren’t a plan at the beginning of Season 3. Ultimates for 15 characters were not a plan when Shadow Jago got his - even though we strictly said so. Things can change, and we understand that, and we hope you do, too.
So that brings us to now. What does the reveal of Eagle mean for KI? All it means is that Eagle will be in KI. What about more characters? That remains to be seen, but as for now we are extremely happy with the 29 characters in Killer Instinct, and what they have to offer. Both Iron Galaxy and Doule Helix have done an incredible job creating a game that encompasses the creativity of past iterations of KI, while keeping it fresh enough to bring in new fans to the IP.
Now let’s talk to the inevitable question of Season 4. You know my answer - stay tuned. However, I will advise you that there will not be a Season 4 announcement at E3. Will KI be at E3 at all? Well, I will be there. Take that as you will.
Doomsday theorists - this is not your time to shine, as Killer Instinct still has plenty of life left in it. Not going to E3 or not announcing a Season 4 is not the end of the word, no matter what forum-goers say. We still have plans to expand Killer Instinct to bring in as many fans to the series as possible. More on what that means this summer.
Early in 2016 we mentioned having 6,000,000 players. E3 last year we had just a hair under 7,000,000. As it stands now, that number is encroaching upon the 10,000,000 mark. Incredible. Not to get into the business details of these things, but let’s just say there is very much a sustainable player base month after month. What I am saying is no matter what happens with Killer Instinct in the next week, month, year, etc., there are still a ton of fans who thoroughly enjoy playing each day. There may only be a few thousand in this forums, and notable players may retire, take some time off, or just forget about the game, but more can and will take their place.
Apologies for the long-winded answer. Had to think very long as to how to approach this subject - despite what many forum members think 
. I know this message is purposefully ambiguous. Apologies, but that’s the nature of the beast.
As you were.
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