Highlights
- NetherRealm Studios is known for alternating between Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, but the announcement of Mortal Kombat 1 breaks this pattern.
- Rumors suggest that NetherRealm Studios may be working on a Marvel fighting game, but it's unclear if they will choose this project over a new Injustice game.
- Game development today is more time-consuming and expensive, meaning NetherRealm Studios may have to choose between one major project at a time.
Earlier this year, NetherRealm Studios finally unveiled its upcoming project, Mortal Kombat 1. The game will be the 12th mainline entry to the franchise, having interwoven new entries between its Injustice IP for the last while. After Mortal Kombat 1 is released, the developer will likely have a big decision to make regarding what project they take on next.
Outside its work on the Mortal Kombat franchise, NetherRealm's Injustice games wore the title of a DC fighting game. The pattern that the developer would adhere to would be to make one Mortal Kombat game and one Injustice game every few years. The studio revealing Mortal Kombat 1 marked the first break from this habit in over 10 years, and it's not clear why a new Injustice game hasn't been put into the works. This may be because the studio is working on a Marvel fighting game, or at least fans hope so.
NetherRealm Studios' Rumored Marvel Game
Rumors began to circulate in 2021 that NetherRealm Studios might be making a Marvel game. That said, the studio is owned by Warner Bros Discovery which also owns DC. Because of all this, it seemed odd and somewhat unlikely that the company would make a game promoting a direct rival.
Even though no official news ever came of the rumor, the stories about it continued to persist. At one point, Ed Boon himself teased the Marvel game possibility, citing the fact that director James Gunn worked on both properties and many stories could be used as a setup for a fighting game. Furthermore, Marvel and Disney have been letting multiple developers and publishers take a shot at the property with varying results. If this opportunity does exist for NetherRealm Studios it's going to have to make some hard decisions once the work on Mortal Kombat 1 wraps up.
Why NetherRealm Studios Will Have to Pick One Project Over Another
At the moment, it's starting to look like Injustice 3 is a pipe dream for fans as it's been six years since the last game was released. Rumors of a sequel have yet to crop up, nor has NetherRealm even confirmed that one is being worked on. Once Mortal Kombat 1 is completed, NetherRealm Studios will likely have to choose between making a new Injustice game or a Marvel fighting game, if it has the opportunity to make one.
The simple fact of the matter is that game development takes a lot longer and is more expensive today than it was 10 years ago. Regardless of what project NetherRealm Studios goes with, it will likely take roughly half a decade to complete and consume all of its talent and resources for said project. Having the studio do multiple projects at once and having them released promptly would likely be a logistical impossibility, ensuring that it would have to choose one over the other.
There isn't any way to know what NetherRealm Studios has planned for the future. The next Mortal Kombat game is set to be released next month, but the developer will likely create new content for it for some time. Fans will also likely not know whatever the studio has planned until it's ready to reveal it. Mortal Kombat 1 was subjected to several leaks, but the studio is overall fairly good about not revealing much about its projects until a few months before it launches. Regardless of its direction, the developer will have a big decision to make after their latest game is released.
Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on September 19, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
