With MK11's content cycle recently confirmed to now be at an end,
a lot of fans have been venting various frustrations, from Kombat Pack 2 being a
limp note to end on, to obvious characters that should have been added but weren't,
to straight-up missing content they advertised, to Netherrealm lying about the game being their
longest-supported title. And that last one is what I'm going to break down today.
First, what was the statement made? As far as I can tell (since these are all anyone could provide
as evidence when asked), we have a comment made by a UI artist and one by Ed Boon mid-last year. Ed
said they weren't anywhere near done and the other guy said the game would get more support than past
titles "by a lot". First, it's possible that this was the plan before the whole "WB might be selling
their entire gaming division" debacle earlier this year, and Netherrealm are either being their usual
"we suck at communicating with our fans" selves, or are under NDA over the situation. If WB really
were considering selling their gaming division, presumably over profitability, I can easily see
Netherrealm being forced, or deciding themselves, to stop adding content to a game they've already
sold to us, in favour of working on a brand new game they can sell us to keep WB's pockets lined
and ensure their continued partnership. But, of course, we will likely never know for sure.
Maybe the reason they were radio silent for eight pissing months was that were
waiting for the movie to drop so they could see how much fresh interest the
movie would provide for the game, but the film was such a massive disappointment that
it barely affected player numbers at all, so they dropped support.
But, the fan response has been... strange.
I kept seeing phrases like "so much for MK11 being the longest-supported title",
which very much brings to mind the last time fans took a simplified/inaccurate
interpretation of an Ed Boon quote to heart and got mad about it. So, let's address this.
So, what exactly does "support" actually mean? Some might say that support is from release, up
until the final DLC drops, while others will view it as lasting until the final balancing patch.
Netherrealm's Twitter claimed this month that it's been "more than two years" of support.
The game released in April 2019, and I think there was a patch in May (that was
solely to make Sheeva less broken), which would technically qualify for two years of support;
but I don't think it's unreasonable for fans to hear that this will be their longest-supported
title and expect that to mean something a little more substantive than a balance fix.
After all, who cares if we get some small patches? Netherrealm could put out one for
MK9 today and say they've been supporting it for a decade and it would mean precisely as much.
So, now that we have Netherrealm's bizarre interpretation of this claim made clear,
we can focus on the content-centric view that most of the fans will have had.
So, how true is it? Well, Kombat Pack 2 released back in November,
just over a year and a half since launch. A week later, the movie skin pack released,
with the individual KP2 characters being available a day later. So, MK11's content ranges from the
23rd of April 2019 to November 24th or 25th 2020, depending if you count repackaging of KP2 assets.
MK9 was supported from April to August 2011 (four months). Some might count the
Vita release because of its extra content, but I view that as like saying MKX Mobile
getting some exclusive costumes after KP2 counts as MKX support; it doesn't.
Injustice 1 was supported from April to August 2013 (also four months). Again,
see above for my stance on Injustice Mobile support.
MKX was supported from April 2015 to March 2016 (eleven months).
Injustice 2 was supported from May to November 2017 (six months).
MK11 was supported for nineteen months (the length of support for their first three games combined).
Of course, this is only looking at it from a time perspective, not a content one. I mean,
there was a period of, like, five/six months between Aftermath and Kombat Pack 2,
with no new content of substance. So, time isn't necessarily the best barometer for this. So, if
we instead focus on how much content was released and discount any "bonuses" available at launch...
MK9 received 4 characters, 4 costumes (recolours and ninja skins count as one
each and don't you dare say otherwise, you filthy fucking fanboy), and 3 Fatalities.
Injustice 1 received 6 characters, around 73 costumes, 60 STAR Labs missions, and Zombie Mode.
MKX received 8 characters, 29 costumes, 8 Fatalities and 1
arena. I think they also added Stage Fatalities and more Brutalities too.
Injustice 2 received 9 characters (TMNT only counts as one) and... I guess 6 costumes,
if you count the Justice League set? Damn, Netherrealm really wanted out of that game, eh?
And MK11 received 12 characters (with multiple costumes each for once),
around 49 costumes for existing characters (most coming with up to 3 gear pieces),
16 Kombat League seasons, numerous Brutalities, 4 arenas, 1 Friendship per character,
and 1 story expansion running around half the length of the base story.
So, someone, please explain how this game did not receive the most support of any
proper Netherrealm game. Maybe some people think about e-sport support,
but I just don't think that's what they were talking about.
The best I can figure is that people just assumed on their own that the support would
be comparable to other modern fighters like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7... even though
there was nothing in the statements to support this idea, and it goes completely
against Netherrealm's business strategy. Sure, tacking on another six months is unusual,
but you can't expect them to dedicate like five years to working on one game, especially when
this same team also makes the highly-profitable Injustice series and has plans for a new IP.
You know, Capcom and Bandai Namco can afford to keep an entire team focused on one game because
they have so many other internal developers and numerous publishing opportunities,
While Netherrealm is just the one team within WB, who have to mostly support themselves.
Honestly, I think people getting mad about it for this reason are kind of unreasonable,
but then, MK's community is easily one of the worst in fighting games, so...
Of course, it's all a irrelevant anyway, because we all know Netherrealm's actual
longest-supported game in MK Mobile, which has been continually getting new content since 2015.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me
on Patreon like these fine people here? If not,
then you're probably just mad that Netherrealm didn't support the game for like five years.
Today's recommended videos are my own videos on the numerous very
obvious additions Netherrealm failed to include. Also, since they revealed
the game with a UMK3 Scorpion that isn't in the game, can we sue for false advertising?