Mortal Kombat – we’ve seen washing machines be announced with more fanfare (pic: WB Games)
Warner Bros. has finally announced Mortal Kombat 12, although it almost seems to have done so by mistake during an investors call.
It’s easy to get the impression that the games industry is losing its sense of showmanship. While there’s still the odd surprise reveal, and occasional attempts to make a game announcement seem like a big event, the death of E3 and Sony’s antisocial attitude means new games are being announced with almost zero fanfare.
Even by recent measures though, Mortal Kombat 12 takes things to new extremes. Since development on Mortal Kombat 11 wrapped up, it’s been frequently debated whether developer NetherRealm Studios would return to the Injustice series or jump straight to Mortal Kombat 12.
After so much teasing from NetherRealm’s Ed Boon, parent company Warner Bros. just casually dropped the news that not only is Mortal Kombat 12 the studio’s next game, but it’s coming out this year.
There’s no hype-inducing cinematic trailer, no surprise gameplay drop, not even a single piece of artwork. Just a blunt admission from Warner Bros. during an earnings call that quickly made the rounds on social media.
No release platforms or an exact launch window were given, nor was it said when a proper trailer for Mortal Kombat 12 will be shown. A safe bet for a reveal would be E3 2023, which runs from June 13 to June 16, although Warner Bros. hasn’t stated yet if it will be attending.
As for its release, it definitely won’t be out before Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which launches on May 26 and finally showed some proper gameplay at last night’s State of Play.
This at least places Mortal Kombat 12 somewhere in the second half of the year, assuming it doesn’t get pushed back into 2024. Possibly sometime after June so it won’t have to share the spotlight with Street Fighter 6.
It honestly feels as if Warner Bros. thought it had already announced Mortal Kombat 12. Or perhaps it figured there was no point being subtle since everyone knew the game was at least in development.
Boon seems to be taking it in stride, though, using the opportunity to, as usual, troll his fans by tweeting, ‘So who has heard the news about Injustice 3?’
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As a reminder, NetherRealm has usually alternated between the Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, so this marks the first time it’s gone straight into another Mortal Kombat sequel.
Although no official reason has been given, it’s suggested that this is due to Warner Bros.’ rather confusing restructuring efforts, which at one point looked like they were going to result in a break-up of the games division.
So far that hasn’t happened but, at the time, the future of those studios was very unclear. So, it’s believed that NetherRealm opted to skip a new Injustice just in case it wound up losing access to the DC characters like Batman and Superman.
Injustice 2 – Injustice 3 is likely still on the cards; it’s just not a priority right now (pic: WB Games)
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Warner Bros. has finally announced Mortal Kombat 12, although it almost seems to have done so by mistake during an investors call.
