After being conducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame during last night’s 25th annual DICE Awards, Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon had a few cryptic comments to make regarding the next game in the massive franchise. Typically tight-lipped when it comes to the goings-on at NetherRealm Studios, Boon promised that whatever is coming next will be well worth the wait.
“I can say that for 10 years, we were releasing Mortal Kombat and Injustice, Mortal Kombat and Injustice,” said Boon. “When we broke that pattern, there was a lot of speculation of what we would be doing next. I can tell you there was a reason for it, and when we announce our next game, it’ll make a lot more sense. At this point, I’ll get in a lot of trouble if I say anything more.”
Plenty of fans were expecting Injustice 3 to be revealed sometime in 2021, and with that never happening, the mystery surrounding the studio’s next project has deepened.
In late January, a seemingly staged leak from a producer at NetherRealm studios teased the next Mortal Kombat title. The one responsible for the image, Jonathan Andersen, later suggested that the post wasn’t a tease of the next game, but simply a way to poke fun at the overly-eager fanbase.
The last Mortal Kombat game, Mortal Kombat 11, was released in April 2019 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Though it garnered largely positive reviews, it recieved criticism for its use of microtransactions and over-reliance on grinding. An expansion including new characters, stages, and additional story was released in May 2020. It was ported to current-gen consoles in November 2020.
A sequel to the 2021 Mortal Combat film has been confirmed by Warner Bros. With the popularity of the film series about to ramp up again, it’s possible that a new game in the series could be the next thing on the docket.
