For fans of the Injustice franchise, you might have expected the announcement of an Injustice 3 before another major installment for the Mortal Kombat franchise. But that’s not what happened. Rather than going back and forth between the franchises, NetherRealm Studios opted to work on Mortal Kombat 1 over Injustice 3. Today we are finding out two reasons why the studio opted to make the decision to skip Injustice 3.
NetherRealm Studios head, Ed Boon, spoke with IGN recently. During their conversation, Injustice 3 came up in which Ed Boon stated that there were a few reasons why they decided not to develop that game next. According to Ed, the reasons that he could give were because of the pandemic and the new game engine. After Mortal Kombat 11, the world underwent lockdowns and safety precautions due to the covid pandemic. So the studio decided to just continue with the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Furthermore, the studio updated to a new version of Unreal Engine, which was another reason the studio decided to stick with the Mortal Kombat franchise. But the hope was that the studio would eventually get back to another Injustice game. When asked if the door was still open on the Injustice franchise, Ed Boon confirmed that there is still the ability to go back and bring out another game. So it looks like Injustice 3 will eventually see a release in the marketplace, but we’re just not going to see it for a little while.
If you missed out on the news, Mortal Kombat 1 is the franchise’s next installment. Acting as a reboot for the franchise, we are getting a new timeline and, with it, a changeup of the character relationships. We’ll have to wait and see what has changed with some of our past favorite fighters of this franchise. But we did recently get some gameplay footage during Summer Game Fest. If you missed out on that trailer, you can view it right here.
Currently, Mortal Kombat 1 is set to launch on September 19, 2023. When the game launches, you’ll find it available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S platforms. Meanwhile, the last Injustice game to release, Injustice 2, is available on mobile devices, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms. If you want a bit more insight into that game in particular, then check out our Before You Buy video coverage below.
