Can't see a fault with this post at all; I've thought for a while now that we're only going to see new characters closer to release, same with the 3D era characters.

Although I could see some being revealed during the streams they do about the story; wasn't there mentions of part of the story focusing on the Cage family? We could see Johnny & Sonya before the end of March depending when they do the story details stream.

Ive said it before, its not a problem with WB's marketing. Its a problem of fan's patience.

The marketing does have it's faults. There should never be a 3 month drought of info when we're less than 6-7 months from launch.

I think NRS (and fans) need to learn that there is methods of marketing and info dropping other than character reveals. Having a PR guy show off just a stage (or something else) once in awhile would help a constant flow of information.

Yeah, that three month period was very strange. At the very least, they could have done streams or variation trailers for the characters shown back at E3.

I didn't mean the title of this thread to come off as if the marketing has been flawfree, because it hasn't. It's more directed at the people claiming the marketing is bad because we're only getting old characters revealed.

The marketing isn't bad but it isn't great either the drought kind of was killing everyone's hype there for a while but they finally stepped up their game this month. I give them props for that.

Except for the drought we had the only thing that's bothering me is that we know very few story details.

Only through leaks, interview slip-ups & info from the comics do we know that:

1) A section is supposedly about the Cage family.

2) There's a war in the Netherrealm, in which Quan Chi loses control of at least some of the dead.

3) A "Nice big portion" is supposed to revolve around MK4 and Shinnok's Earthrealm invasion.

4) There's a section that focuses on the rise and fall of Kotal Kahn; which is assumed to be the Outworld Civil War.

But there's no tournament? One hasn't been mentioned at all.

I can't think of any other game I've played where there's been next to nothing known about its story so close to release, even the Arkham games have had more story details divulged and their main component is the story!

Even if it was just snippets of things like "Liu is back, but he's changed since the last game" I'd be fine with that; it would be new info yet wouldn't give too much away, but would allow fans to speculate which would then create more buzz & hype.

Obviously they want people to be surprised about the story. Can't say I blame them

I wouldn't want the story ruined, my main draw is the lore and the stories of the games.

But clarification of some things wouldn't hurt; "Yes the Outworld Civil War and Kotal Kahn's rise & fall are the same thing and the war will be seen in game". At the moment a lot of people are posting all over about how the war may only feature in the comic so it allows some characters to be shown without them being playable in the game, like Bo'Rai Cho.

I agree some clarification wouldn't hurt or kill.
Or maim or destroy, lol

nothing? i give them a lot of shit for their marketing but really i've never seen anyone utilize their game like the mortal kombat crew. they dont pay for advertising, they make money on advertising 90s merch style. as a fan its annoying though. i have to buy the comic to get any info but the comic isnt really saying shit either. cramming all of this shit in 2 months seems like a dropped ball to me, i just hope the game being delayed isnt the reason.

Marketing is fine. I just, wanted to see more new characters I'm a, huge fan not casual and I don't care about returnees.

Born-to-be: I don't think cage and blade will be playable. Also theres, no, tournament be ause 50 yrs haven't passed yet shao, khans invasion Shinnok invasion/neatherrrealm war isn't a tournament. So the main portion isn't a tournament earlier

They have to keep the buzz going if they plan on selling a better MK9 nostalgia.

People who still don't believe Johnny and Sonya have a high chance of being playable are ignoring a boatload of evidence:

-Boon questioning the fanbase's leaps in logic about Cassie replacing Sonya

-Boon claiming there will be characters with aged variations (we haven't seen any so far!)

-Boon claiming family members will be doing fatalities on each other

-Adam Urbano accidentally saying you can play as Johnny Cage in the Gamespot PAX demo

-German Gamepro leak that also leaked Kano mentioned Sonya and Johnny as playable (tenuous credibility)

-Both characters survived MK9. Who else is gonna fight on the side of Earthrealm in the Netherrealm War portion of the story mode besides maybe Kenshi and Fujin?

-NRS has said time and time again that this game is "the passing of the torch between the old generation and the new". If Johnny and/or Sonya are missing, it isn't a torch getting passed, so much as a torch getting put out and replaced.

-NRS loves including most, if not the entirety, of the MK1 cast in every next-gen MK game, because they are the dearest to them and they like to revamp them with whatever gimmick they're working with at the time (in this game's case: variations).

Those last three bits are less relevant, but viable points nonetheless. None of this 100% confirms these characters, of course. You need video evidence or a legit-looking render or an official announcement for that. But to be outright convinced of their exclusion is willfully ignorant, IMO.

Edit: Before people ask for sources:

Click and scroll to the bottom for confirmation of aged variations and Boon questioning the fanbase's logic

Adam Urbano lets it slip

German Gamepro translation

YOU, sir, deserve a gold star sticker for this post.

That'd actually be kinda cool. I hope you're right, man.

I guess the only issue is that Johnny and Sonya are sure to in the game anyway, so they aren't the people I'm worried about.

Those would be the guys who don't have descendants or anyone to carry their legacy into a new generation, like pretty much any of the post-classic MK characters. And those have been completely ignored so far.

The information drought around the holidays makes enough sense too, when you think about it.

The only reason to heavily tease a game during the holiday shopping season is to make people go out and buy your game. But MKX wouldn't be out until April, and most Christmas shoppers probably wouldn't be thinking about preordering a game that you can't even play for four more months. Christmas shoppers want games that they can unwrap and play immediately. Any big marketing efforts during that time period would have been wasted resources: money inefficiently spent, and information spoiled that they could have released at a more opportune time.

Come January, the information faucets have opened full blast -- because holiday shopping is no longer a distraction now. The only potential customers who cared, or even noticed that there was a drought, are the ones like us who practically live on the fan forums and compulsively itch for every little detail. But we're a minority -- a tiny, insignificant minority. The few thousand diehard fans who were watching that Twitch broadcast the other day are not going to move millions of units off the shelves. The marketing team can't cater to our ravenous appetites and run low on new material before the crucial time, right before release, when it makes the most difference to use it.

Now, MKX was featured on Conan and they're planning regular Twitch streams to show us all the material we've been waiting for. Comics are running once a week, and story and character details are falling into place. In about 10 more weeks the game will be in our hands and nothing will be left to the imagination.

Peeps gotta chill, is what I'm sayin. There are a lot of people here demanding that NRS keeps their own personal "hype" up, as if the developers have some kind of obligation to keep us entertained while we wait for them to finish making the game. Why do they need to keep up the "hype" for the fans who are going to buy the game no matter what? Save the hype for the millions of gamers they actually have to sell their product to. Hell, the fact that we seem to care so vocally about what happens in the game is all the more reason for them to keep us hungry. Not telling us everything that's going on is generating hype, because if they told us more sooner then we'd have already run out of things to talk about on the forums. Our fan speculations have kept the buzz going in a much more persistent way that new trailers ever could. Case in point: people have already mostly stopped talking about Kitana and almost stopped talking about Reptile, and almost all the active conversation is basically about "Who's Next?" And that's the way it's been pretty much the whole time.

If the marketing team knows their fans, that was probably the plan all along.

@umbrascitor

thats exactly why its weird though. it's almost like they are all "fuck it our game will speak for itself" which is alright lol. like you said, we dont need to be marketed, we're buying regardless. these little reveals and streams are NRS throwing us few thousand a bone, its not markerting. there is little to none of that but they did do a great job going after the comic crowd. some of these other fighting game enthusiasts need more than a gory story trailer a month before release. they need depth that should have been shown way before the holidays and it was in small amounts. with the conan stuff i would be really surprised if the super bowl didnt have an mkx commercial, that would be great marketing.

Brilliant, insightful post. I don't think there's anything I can add to that.