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Mortal Kombat 12 has been confirmed in development and is slated for a 2023 release date after being announced… in an investor call.
Few things are more thrilling than a fierce and bloody battle to the death, which has been the show’s strongest point for over 30 years. However, it seems that the message has been lost with the publishers. Mortal Kombat 12‘s reveal comes without a trailer and complete radio silence from the brand’s various social accounts. Despite the missing announcement, it’s certainly one of the bigger ones upcoming games in the genre to look forward to.
Four years after the launch of the series’ previous entry, Mortal Kombat 12 was made official in the Warner Bros. Discovery Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call on Twitter (opens in new tab). It’s hardly the spotless win I expected, especially considering that other franchises in the fighting game community have made character reveals, stages, and gameplay mechanics a big part of the suspense.
The reveal comes at an extraordinary time in Mortal Kombat history. It wasn’t until late October that the series’ lukewarm 30th anniversary was announced, complete with trailers and artwork to mark the occasion. You’d think this would have been the perfect time to give fans a taste of what’s to come, especially if the 2023 release date is honored, but that didn’t happen.
While Mortal Kombat games usually come out at the end of April, it’s unlikely to be the case with Mortal Kombat 12 because of the sudden and disappointing way it was announced. It makes much more sense to expect the game towards the end of the year, with a possible full reveal at E3 2023.
This year is going to be really huge for fighting games. That’s because we get too Street Fighter 6 And Teck 8 in the next months. Now, Mortal Kombat finally returns to gaming after a live-action movie and three well-received animated films focusing on iconic characters Scorpion, Liu Kang, and Kenshi, respectively.
Mortal Kombat legacy
I’ve played Mortal Kombat all my life. Some of my earliest gaming memories include countless rounds of Mortal Kombat trilogy And Mortal Kombat 4 on PS1 before going all in on the series with the transition to 3D Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance And Mortal Kombat: cheating in the early 2000s. Fast forward to Mortal Kombat (2011), and my love for the series was rediscovered. It’s the only time I’ve downloaded a demo and, along with my younger brother, have done my very best to defend the triumphant return to the classic 2D roots.
That tradition was continued for both Mortal Kombat x in 2015 and Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019, eagerly enthralled by the stories and the new characters that would come after the initial release. To say I’ve spent a significant amount of my free time on this franchise over the past 20 years would be a gross understatement.
I hope Mortal Kombat 12 leans back to the more fast and aggressive style of play that has been created Mortal Kombat x so loved by the casual and competitive scenes. By significantly speeding up the game and working on smoother animations, the next title in the lineup would play as continuously and vigorously as the competition.
Mortal Kombat 11 had an official release on the PS5 and Xbox Series X which benefited from 4K resolution and much better textures than the previous generation. It’s hard to believe, but that 2019 game actually ran on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Considering how great the lighting and particle effects are in the game, it remains a truly impressive feat.
It would make sense for Mortal Kombat 12 to run on Unreal Engine 5 to really push what the current generation of consoles are capable of. Teck 8 is confirmed to use this game engine and looks really spectacular compared to its predecessor from 2017. That game is exclusive to the current generation, which means it’s not coming Xbox One or PS4 platforms. I hope the next Mortal Kombat game will follow suit, especially as cross-gen games hold back the current generation of consoles.