I was just curious what people thought about MK's future. Since the fighting genre rose to the top and then waned, we've seen fewer fighters come out in the last decade or so. 2009, however, in many respects, marked the year of the fighter's return. Tekken 6, Blaze Blue, Soul Calibur 4, Street Fighter 4 and others all came out to positive reviews and presumably decent sales.
Does this mean that the genre is returning to some level of prominence? How can the MK team draw off of this possible momentum (if you think there is any to be drawn from) and how can MK draw in more fans?
Will the MK team ever draw as many fans as they used to?
I only ask because, while I love being a hardcore fan of MK and being catered to as a hardcore fan, I also want to see my favorite game do well, primarily so that I can have more sequels of that game, but also so there are more people both locally and online to play against.
Shock and awe:
Would it take something incredibly shocking? I'm guessing that won't happen considering Midway's new owner, fear of the dreaded AO rating and the fact that most people have seen the envelope pushed pretty far now in terms of in game violence under the M rating.
MK might have been shocking back in 1992, but since then, we've seen Manhunt, GTA, God of War and other games take the brutality that you see on screen to a whole new level.
That said, i doubt we'll ever see the fabled nudality lol.
So if it might not be controversy (and that's debatable, certainly), what else could lure in more fans?
Cover your bases:
The last few MK games have taken this sort of "fun for everyone" stance and included several minigames that were presumably an attempt to get people that had no interest in the actual fighting product to sit down and play.
To me, this is inherantly backwards. No casual fan is going to buy Mortal Kombat so that they can play a kart racing game. If they want to play a kart racing game, they have plenty of choices to choose from in that genre. Better choices.
They certainly won't hurt a games sales (unless fighting fans get angry because alot of times those modes might come at the expense of more fighting oriented modes). Can you be everything to everyone? Would it even matter if you were?
Best Game Possible:
Or will it simply be a matter of making a game with a great fighting engine, supurb graphics, great online and (perhaps most importantly) a great marketing campaign?
We've seen great games get great reviews, great word of mouth, even great marketing and yet still do little in terms of sales. Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil and basically every Oddworld Inhabitants game are testaments to this issue.
Sure, making a great game means that it's more likely the sales will be there, but it's no mortal lock by any means (sorry for the bad pun, it was unintended, I promise you lol).
So what would it take? A combination of all of these things? Some totally new idea that none of us have considered?
Can lightning strike twice for this series? Does it need to?
