We have an interesting new rumor about Mortal Kombat 1,that might be even a more radical change to fighting games than what Street Fighter 6 did.
A redditor named DeffersonCamargo shared information they found on the back of Mortal Kombat 1’s box, that he translated to English as so:
“Travel through the realms of Mortal Kombat facing invasions of each season in an all new single player experience”
The Brazilian version of Mortal Kombat 1’s box had apparently leaked early in the country.
Insider Gaming believes that this is proof that Mortal Kombat 1will have seasons. Subsequently, this opens up the possibility that Mortal Kombat 1 will have season passes and battle passes, in spite of Ed Boon stating that NetherRealm Studios had no plans to introduce battle passes to the game.
But we’ll put forward another possibility. NetherRealm has earned a reputation for making layered, if not exactly subtle, narratives for the more recent Mortal Kombat games. But in a way, that’s how Mortal Kombat games have always been made, all the way back when it was a groundbreaking project for the team at Midway.
We recently reported on how Mortal Kombat 1would be bringing back deep cut characters like Ashrah. Ashrah comes from Mortal Kombat Deception and Mortal Kombat Armageddon, two of the conceptually most ambitious games the franchise had ever seen.
With NetherRealm now seeing success on commercially, critically, and even on the esports front, we could see Ed Boon and his team endeavoring to some new ideas and new ambitions.
So these invasions could really be about the narratives that NetherRealm have planned well in advance. Seasons aren’t some new invention for fighting games – Tekken 7 has demonstrated that its possible to integrate seasons in a way that’s familiar and amenable to fighting game fans old and new alike.
So NetherRealm’s approach to Mortal Kombat 1’s seasons will likely be conservative, like Tekken. Dead or Alive 5 and Street Fighter X Tekken has demonstrated to developers firsthand the folly of attempting aggressive monetization on an audience that’s already dead set on throwing their money around the esports scene.
But their big plans will be on the storyline front. Players of Mortal Kombat Deception and Mortal Kombat Armageddon know that NetherRealm have tons of huge stories they would love to have a bigger opportunity to tell, from all those years ago. They may have found a way to tells those stories, today.
Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on September 14, 2023, on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows on Steam and Epic Games Store.