Mortal Kombat 1 Pulled a Fatality… On Itself

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to bill Mortal Kombat as one of WB Games’ biggest active properties – hell, that’s an assertion that WB Games itself would have zero issues agreeing with – but though the series has seen the sort of consistent and widespread success across multiple entries over the years that would almost make you believe that it has become immune to actual failures, recent events have proven that notion wrong. Mortal Kombat 1, a game that had already proven divisive with series fans since its launch in 2023, has seen the end of its post-launch support earlier than what many would have expected, and it is a disappointingly fitting end to the life of a game that just couldn’t seen to figure out the right decision to make throughout its active life.

When the fighting title launched under two years ago, it did immediately meet with skepticism from many in the audience. From its new Kameo fighters system not convincing everyone to its multiversal timeline-rebooting story feeling like kind of a mess, there was a lot about Mortal Kombat 1 that drew criticism from many critics and those in the audience alike. Of course, for a fighting game releasing in the current market, a less-than-stellar launch is by no means a death knell, but sadly, Mortal Kombat 1 didn’t make a recovery in its post-launch period either.

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In fact, if anything, you could argue that things only went worse for the game in the time following its release. From lukewarm reception for DLC fighters and the game’s story expansion generally being considered a disappointment to underwhelming Invasions update (a mode that was already not the most popular among fans), startling and controversial monetization decisions, and more, it felt like every single step that WB Games and NetherRealm Studios took with Mortal Kombat 1 following its release was worse than the last.

With all of those poor choices, criticisms, and controversies snowballing together, it maybe shouldn’t come as a surprise that that has reflected in not just critical, but the commercial reception for the game as well (even though it is– it’s still Mortal Kombat, after all). In January, it was announced that Mortal Kombat 1 had sold over 5 million units worldwide, which, viewed in isolation, is by no means a bad feat for any game- 5 million units sold in a year and a half is not necessarily something to scoff at.

But by Mortal Kombat standards, MK1’s sales definitely do seem like they have slowed down. At last count, Mortal Kombat X had sold over 12 million units worldwide, while Mortal Kombat 11 stands at over 15 million units sold. Even though MK1’s numbers aren’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, the game is still clearly still selling at a much slower pace, with the generally mixed reception surrounding it having clearly impacted sales.

And it’s not just the base game that has not sold to WB Games’ expectations. Reports have claimed that the expansion, Khaos Reigns (which wasn’t too well received and was also considered overpriced by many), also did not sell well, following which the publisher made the decision to cancel future content that was in development for Mortal Kombat 1. And after more reports and speculation over recent weeks that post-launch support for the fighter had been killed, WB Games and NetherRealm Studios recently officially confirmed that that was indeed the case. With NetherRealm apparently focused on its next big project (which could reportedly be the next Injustice game at long last, but there’s nothing concrete on that front just yet), WB games says the decision has been made to shelve future content plans for Mortal Kombat 1, so the studio can instead dedicate all of itself to its next game.

That comes as a surprise for several reasons. For starters, at only a little over a year and a half since its release, Mortal Kombat 1’s post-launch death seems like a somewhat premature one. Past Mortal Kombat titles have kept things going for longer, so to see MK1 closing the book so early comes as a disappointing surprise. And when you look at other major fighting games on the market right now, the contrast becomes even clearer. Take a look at the likes of Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, or Guilty Gear Strive, and Mortal Kombat 1’s post-launch deficiencies become even clearer- in case they weren’t pretty darn clear already, that is. That is all doubly true, in fact, because until not too long ago, word from the official channels had consistently suggested that there was going to be plenty more post-launch content for the game in the pipeline. Clearly, NetherRealm Studios intended to keep pumping content out for the game if critical and commercial reception for it had allowed it.

You can, of course, argue that it is likely for the best that Mortal Kombat 1 is being sent to the grave, because ultimately, that means NetherRealm gets to move on from the mistakes it made with this game and instead focus on its next project, which will hopefully be a much better and more well thought out experience, both at launch and afterwards. The question many will have is whether the mistakes that NetherRealm made with Mortal Kombat 1 were the kind that warranted a premature abandonment of the game. Games that were way worse, more broken, and seemingly much, much more beyond salvage than MK1 have enjoyed truly spectacular recoveries, so it would be foolish to suggest that there was no way NetherRealm’s fighters wouldn’t have been able to win people over again. Ultimately, however, you do get why WB Games is choosing to move on.

What lessons the publisher and developer will take from the missteps of Mortal Kombat 1 should be interesting to see. For starters, it seems fair to say that people are maybe feeling a little bit of Mortal Kombat fatigue right now, so if NetherRealm Studios is indeed developing Injustice 3 next instead of another MK game, that is probably the best decision that could be made right now. Beyond that, you’d also hope that WB and NetherRealm will have much better and more compelling post-launch content plans for their next project, whatever that is, and that, crucially enough, they will have much fairer and less aggressive monetization policies in place. If not, if they continue to make the same mistakes, we wouldn’t be surprised if the next release continued to slide backwards from the highs of Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11.

As for Mortal Kombat 1 itself, it’s disappointing to see the game going down. Obviously, the franchise itself remains one of Warner Bros’ biggest IPs, and it will of course continue to be hugely important. But whenever it is that the next Mortal Kombat game comes out, it will be interesting to see how (or if) it follows up on MK1. Will NetherRealm pick up the game’s story and continue telling that tale, even though that story is partly responsible for the game’s mixed reception, or will we be in for yet another reboot? Either way, it feels like the developer is going to have to sidestep several mines, which it didn’t necessarily accomplish with Mortal Kombat 1. Here’s hoping the future has better things in store for the franchise.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.