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What Happened, NRS?!

trufenix

bye felicia
There were many articles in early 2021 that the next game was rumored to be a Marvel game or something different and we were allegedly getting one last expansion to mk11 then too to hold us over. I believe later Spring of that year they confirmed "no new support for MK11". To be fair I think the Marvel styled game it would have easily been able to realter the graphics to DC characters. I think for a hot minute maybe there was a He-man rumor game. I am not sure He-Man is resonating much with a younger audience.
The WBD merger happened in late 2021 early 2022, since then every WB games project has been a shell of a game with TONS of dlc. I would guess that's when MK1 was "born".

I would assume if the dc arm had been more successful, we might be playing a half baked injustice 3 instead of mk but it would still be bad.

WB games is basically just a fundraiser for the rest of the company now.
 

Gito666

Ninjas > Special Forces
Tbf, none of us work for WB (that we've admitted), so we don't know EXACTLY what's going on behind the scenes...

That being said, they definitely have made some seemingly bad decisions in the last few years, in both games and movies. I REALLY hope they leave James Gunn alone and let him execute HIS version of the DCU. Who knows? Maybe if that works out they'll start giving their game devs a little more freedom :p
 
The problem predates Zaslov. WB has been rotten and spiraling out of control as a company for years throwing bad money after bad money. The squeeze we've been seeing on games is to try to get ANY kind of profit going.

WB isn't in AS bad as shape as Disney, but that's only because they haven't wasted as much money...but their decision-making has been nearly as catastrophic. Oh also they don't have Disney's looming Hulu catastrophe hanging over their heads.

Zaslov is trying to address WB gushing funds out of dozens of self-inflicted wounds and likely is not quite sure how to patch it all up. That said, it's likely more directly attributable to the head of WB Games division rather than Zaslov himself. Top guys like that don't make decisions like the ones implemented in the games...they're big picture guys, not managing divisions. David Haddad is likely the guy making the call on stuff like this. Daddy WB is demanding better results and this is probably just how they're trying to make it happen.

EDIT:

I REALLY hope they leave James Gunn alone and let him execute HIS version of the DCU.
The sad part about this is that it likely doesn't matter. DC's brand seems dead at the cinema and the damage done to them and comic book movies in general by DC's slate of awful movies and Marvel's ABYSMAL phase 4 and 5 slop have likely killed off profitability in that genre for big budget tent-pole stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if Gunn's stuff is never meaningfully allowed to get off the ground.
 

Ray'sGoodLiquor

I don't care I'm not a competitive player anymore
Fighters are very community driven. The current community is as milquetoast as it comes. Need some beefs and shit talk to bring the hype. Nah it's just the same ole hug fest TYM grindr lovin.
I miss the old FGC so much but it pretty much got murdered in the 2010's by a bunch of outsiders that don't even really play video games. If some of the shit that was said back in the arcades was said at my local, people might start crying.
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
Tbf, none of us work for WB (that we've admitted), so we don't know EXACTLY what's going on behind the scenes...

That being said, they definitely have made some seemingly bad decisions in the last few years, in both games and movies. I REALLY hope they leave James Gunn alone and let him execute HIS version of the DCU. Who knows? Maybe if that works out they'll start giving their game devs a little more freedom :p
actually we do. WB Games is owned by Discovery. So, One king answers to another and another and another and pay the people that do most of the work a tiny portion of what they make.

 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
The problem predates Zaslov. WB has been rotten and spiraling out of control as a company for years throwing bad money after bad money. The squeeze we've been seeing on games is to try to get ANY kind of profit going.

WB isn't in AS bad as shape as Disney, but that's only because they haven't wasted as much money...but their decision-making has been nearly as catastrophic. Oh also they don't have Disney's looming Hulu catastrophe hanging over their heads.

Zaslov is trying to address WB gushing funds out of dozens of self-inflicted wounds and likely is not quite sure how to patch it all up.
I read somewhere a few weeks back that WB mostly concerned about paying down their debt and building up free cash flow to set up for more acquisitions of other distressed companies & using the proceeds on the merger to pay down their debt. There's apparently talks about WB also merging with Paramount or buying NBCUniversal from Comcast.

If this is true, it's not a surprise that they want to drain everyone's bank accounts until they're dry like they’re a bunch of Twitter findoms. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, Mortal Kombat 11 made $500m of pure profit - a terrible game that was/is an unfinished buggy mess & filled with controversy such as treating their employees like shit, fatality research giving employees PTSD & the estimated cost to buy all the customization in the game on release being $6440 (until they were called out on it) but it still got 8/10s & an 86-88 (highest last gen & current gen) on Metacritic & still won awards the year of release. WB Games wants to replicate or top that success for Mortal Kombat 1.
 
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Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
Mortal Kombat 11 made $500m of pure profit - a terrible game that was/is an unfinished buggy mess & filled with controversy such as treating their employees like shit, fatality research giving employees PTSD & the estimated cost to buy all the customization in the game on release being $6440 (until they were called out on it) but it still got 8/10s & an 86-88 (highest last gen & current gen) on Metacritic & still won awards the year of release. WB Games wants to replicate or top that success for Mortal Kombat 1.
MK11 was far from a “terrible game that was unfinished”. The game was great, they just messed up on a lot of things like putting such a heavy emphasis on customizable variations only for that aspect to immediately be tournament and ranked banned before the game even came out. Idk why they marketed and promoted that so hard only to cuck us for most of the games life. Until they finally realized “hey, maybe allowing players to customize their variations was actually a good idea like the majority of the community has been saying since before the game even came out”. Smh, MK11 if anything was a game with a ton of wasted potential, but certainly wouldn’t call it “terrible” or even “unfinished”.
 

chrisisnice

I'm a lover, not a fighter
MK11 was far from a “terrible game that was unfinished”. The game was great, they just messed up on a lot of things like putting such a heavy emphasis on customizable variations only for that aspect to immediately be tournament and ranked banned before the game even came out. Idk why they marketed and promoted that so hard only to cuck us for most of the games life. Until they finally realized “hey, maybe allowing players to customize their variations was actually a good idea like the majority of the community has been saying since before the game even came out”. Smh, MK11 if anything was a game with a ton of wasted potential, but certainly wouldn’t call it “terrible” or even “unfinished”.
I'm a self confessed fanboy of the series, but MK11 was the biggest piece of shit since MKDA. Third worst in the series and my least played after MK and MKDA. Such a dissapointment after the amazing MK9/MKX.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
I'm a self confessed fanboy of the series, but MK11 was the biggest piece of shit since MKDA. Third worst in the series and my least played after MK and MKDA. Such a dissapointment after the amazing MK9/MKX.
It’s wild to see people saying MKX was good after the fact when so many people hated it when it was actually being played. I guess if constant safe 50/50’s into 30%+ that loops back into a 50/50 is your idea of “amazing gameplay” then more power to ya ¯\(ツ)
 
It’s wild to see people saying MKX was good after the fact when so many people hated it when it was actually being played. I guess if constant safe 50/50’s into 30%+ that loops back into a 50/50 is your idea of “amazing gameplay” then more power to ya ¯\(ツ)
speaking of mkx,im curiouse if someone more experianced can say,what system changes contributed going from mkx to now mk11 and mk1,that made d1s/pokes in general so spammy and very dominant,i dont remember it being thay way in mkx,its was one of the most frustrating things about mk11 initially getting used to that,especially before the targeted changes but even then it felt like the block stun was so low that if you were trying to visually react and respond to blocking a down 1 you would be late,and the person mindlessly mashing would win.

Mk1 its much better in pretty much all gameplay aspects to mk11 but the low poke dominance is the only thing giving me that mk11-esque feeling and lessens the enjoyment,especially as some characters have trouble asserting advantage which contributes to people mashing even more if they know thr match up.
 
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Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
It’s wild to see people saying MKX was good after the fact when so many people hated it when it was actually being played. I guess if constant safe 50/50’s into 30%+ that loops back into a 50/50 is your idea of “amazing gameplay” then more power to ya ¯\(ツ)
I find this to be quite an interesting comment, since I actually saw very few complaints about MKX during its lifespan compared to MK11 - even more interesting is the fact that MK1 is basically MKX with no run button and kameos: you now have the same breakneck fast 50/50s that loop into themselves with most of the cast, only with half the armored moves MKX had, and now kameos can actually give characters 50/50s. Yet, so far, this is currently considered one of, if not THE best mk gameplay to date.
 

LEGEND

YES!
I find this to be quite an interesting comment, since I actually saw very few complaints about MKX during its lifespan compared to MK11 - even more interesting is the fact that MK1 is basically MKX with no run button and kameos: you now have the same breakneck fast 50/50s that loop into themselves with most of the cast, only with half the armored moves MKX had, and now kameos can actually give characters 50/50s. Yet, so far, this is currently considered one of, if not THE best mk gameplay to date.
this is incorrect.

Almost all 50/50s are reactable and don't lead to crazy damage if you pick a Kameo that can make them safe. Kenshi, and others with Lao hat setups are the exception but obviously require the other player to get hit first, it isn't the standard situation in all MUs like it was in MKX.

There is much more insane shit that MKX had and if you didn't see alot of complaining during MKX's life then you weren't paying attention.
 

Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
this is incorrect.

Almost all 50/50s are reactable and don't lead to crazy damage if you pick a Kameo that can make them safe. Kenshi, and others with Lao hat setups are the exception but obviously require the other player to get hit first, it isn't the standard situation in all MUs like it was in MKX.

There is much more insane shit that MKX had and if you didn't see alot of complaining during MKX's life then you weren't paying attention.
Almost all of the 50/50s in MKX were fuzzyable, with many of them also being reactable. The exception being shit like Quan Chi's bat or whatever. Unreactable 50/50 were definitely not the standart across most match ups in MKX, let alone all of them, specially not after the last patch and if you think that was the case, then you are probably the one not paying attention back then.

Also, I didn't say MKX had less insane shit than MK1. I said Mk1 has the same, if not more, loopable 50/50s, with less armored options out of them. I also didn't say I didn't see "a lot of complaining during mkx's lifetime" - I said there was a lot LESS complaining compared to MK11. Every single NRS game has had lots of complaining during their lifecycle, but that wasn't my point.
 

LEGEND

YES!
Almost all of the 50/50s in MKX were fuzzyable, with many of them also being reactable. The exception being shit like Quan Chi's bat or whatever. Unreactable 50/50 were definitely not the standart across most match ups in MKX, let alone all of them, specially not after the last patch and if you think that was the case, then you are probably the one not paying attention back then.

Also, I didn't say MKX had less insane shit than MK1. I said Mk1 has the same, if not more, loopable 50/50s, with less armored options out of them. I also didn't say I didn't see "a lot of complaining during mkx's lifetime" - I said there was a lot LESS complaining compared to MK11. Every single NRS game has had lots of complaining during their lifecycle, but that wasn't my point.
i wasn't around for the last half of the games life. All i ever heard about was how insanely broke x character was. Comparing a finished game to one thats a couple months old doesn't make much sense either.

Fuzzyable just means a 50/50 isn't guaranteed when you are forced to block, it being safe and/or unreactable is the egregious part.

If you count fake 50/50s then i guess your point about MK1 holds.

My last sentence was a general statement, not trying to put words in your mouth.
 

Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
i wasn't around for the last half of the games life. All i ever heard about was how insanely broke x character was. Comparing a finished game to one thats a couple months old doesn't make much sense either.

Fuzzyable just means a 50/50 isn't guaranteed when you are forced to block, it being safe and/or unreactable is the egregious part.

If you count fake 50/50s then i guess your point about MK1 holds.

My last sentence was a general statement, not trying to put words in your mouth.
Oh thanks for clarifying. Overall I agree with you. The point I was trying to make is just that MKX was not as demonized, by the end of its cycle, as MK11 seemingly was, and much of Mk1 is kinda of a return to the MKX gameplay style (although, obviously, refined and with IMO better balancing).
 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
MK11 was far from a “terrible game that was unfinished”.
Source
One current employee said that he and others at the studio have been working 60 to 70 hours per week, seven days a week since January. While he said various factors are to blame for the crunch, such as poor communication and mismanagement, he cited a January marketing event for “Mortal Kombat 11,” called MK Day, which put the studio behind significantly.

“Everybody said from the get-go, ‘No, this isn’t going to impact any development time at all; we should be fine. We’ll use the content we have now,’” the employee recalled. “Little did our creative director, our publishing team and marketing know that we were already about three months behind on the entire game.’”

“So they had to pull everybody off, set everybody back another month and a half so we could we could make ourselves look good for MK Day,” he continued. “So that set back design, that set back QA [quality assurance], programming, animation — mostly every department had to start playing catch-up.”

The catch-up still persists, even though “Mortal Kombat 11” was released on April 23.
Problems with in-game currency and exploits have the studio working on its third patch to fix glitches, and it already has two more patches planned.
That article came out on May 3rd, 2019 - 10 days after Mortal Kombat 11's release & already on it's third patch. Sounds unfinished at release if you ask me.

If I were to dive into why MK11 was a terrible game, I'd be here all day. Yes, I do think MKX & MK9 are far better, MK11 is probably the worst main MK since 4 & the complete version of MK4, MK Gold isn't even that bad.
 
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Art Lean

Noob
I absolutely adored MK11, grind notwithstanding, but even then, I appreciate it kept me playing it and enjoying unlocking things in it for more than 2 years.

It brought me fully back into the fold after a bit of a "dark age", and you're talking to a guy who owns the 1992 sterling silver dragon ring and even used to have a Japanese VCD poster for Mortal Kombat Conquest on his wall. That's not in any way suggesting any kind of fanhood hierachy, what I mean is, I just used to be an absolute fanatic who loved it so much I bought absolutely stupid inane MK shit but then entered a dark age away from MK when big grand life-things got in the way (child, divorce), and it was MK11 that brought me back. I'd previously bought MKX when it was on sale at the end of its lifespan, but never gelled with me to be honest.

MK11 felt like pure distilled classic 90s MK to me, in the best possible way, updated for the present day, with a slower chunky feel and satisfying weightiness to the gameplay I'd not felt since being 12 playing MK2 (bearing in mind I didn't play MK9 until after MK11 due to missing out that generation of consoles when my son was a baby). Honestly made me feel like a kid again and truly felt like "my" kind of MK was back. I love MK9 for its characters, story, skins, arenas and solid gameplay, it's a wonderful game, but its jumping mechanics and hit detection feel way more weightless and 'floaty' to me than MK11, as opposed to that satisfyingly heavy MK2 'crunch' that MK11 has.

I know I don't understand the mechanics of fighting games anywhere near to the depth that most of you do, but it's honestly in my top 5 MK games of all time and will take it over any version of MK3, MKX and the 3D trilogy any day.

Drops mic
 
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actually we do. WB Games is owned by Discovery.
I didn't know that. Interesting as Discovery is a client of my company's.

filled with controversy such as treating their employees like shit, fatality research giving employees PTSD
As someone who works in the entertainment industry (television production) and as someone who's seen/experienced a lot of shit at work (sexual harassment, sexual assault, physical assault, racism, discrimination, manipulation, bullying, substance abuse, threats of violence, affairs, bribery, and other delightful things), the above and the "reports" around it always seemed more like sensationalism to me, or perhaps one-sided stories are better ways of putting it.

I say this because the entertainment industry, regardless of division, is always a high stress/high ego environment. That's no secret, and if you're walking into it expecting it to all be rosy and thinking some exec isn't going to loose their shit and yell at people, or some arrogant creative isn't going to treat you like a second class citizen and get away with it because they're bringing profit to the company, then you're in for a reality check. And that's what that was from all the reports I saw, a reality check. Snowflakes do not last long in this industry.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying the arrogant creative or temperamental exec is right, not at all. You can't control them though, but you can control how you react to, and roll with, situations. Racism or discrimination around the current political correctness and diversity and inclusion stuff is the exception now. If someone high ranking does something there, odds are you can get them fired. That happened at my company last Spring. A temp employee got a senior exec terminated for racism (and rightly so, as this exec has long been a problem person).

For the PTSD from Fatality research, that's someone taking on a job that they simply weren't up to the task to/was not for them. We do a lot of murder shows and they have to research extremely graphic imagery and situations. Some researchers handle it fine, some know it's not for them and they look for home and lifestyle shows instead. Some do the murder stuff for years but then move on because it takes their toll on them. Sucks that someone apparently got PTSD, but in this instance that's what happens when you take on something that really isn't for you.

Smh, MK11 if anything was a game with a ton of wasted potential, but certainly wouldn’t call it “terrible” or even “unfinished”.
I again want to point out I always felt @Marlow said it best: that it's a very good game with a lot of excellent ideas that were poorly implemented

I absolutely adored MK11, grind notwithstanding, but even then, I appreciate it kept me playing it and enjoying unlocking things in it for more than 2 years.
I began to really get into it a year after release, when I stopped trying to play it how I thought it should be played and started playing the game the way it was designed to be played. That was a huge 180 for me, and the game improved my skills overall as a fighting game player. I was continually watching myself improve (especially in neutral), and enjoyed playing it competitively outside of my own circle of friends. Something I did not do with the prior games and with the current one. It's my most played Mortal Kombat do date on a competitive level, and either a close 2nd or perhaps even most played game in the franchise to date.

In-spite of it's flaws, it's my favourite NetherRealm Studios Mortal Kombat game.
 

Revy

★ 19 Years of Jade ★
The problem predates Zaslov. WB has been rotten and spiraling out of control as a company for years throwing bad money after bad money. The squeeze we've been seeing on games is to try to get ANY kind of profit going.

WB isn't in AS bad as shape as Disney, but that's only because they haven't wasted as much money...but their decision-making has been nearly as catastrophic. Oh also they don't have Disney's looming Hulu catastrophe hanging over their heads.

Zaslov is trying to address WB gushing funds out of dozens of self-inflicted wounds and likely is not quite sure how to patch it all up. That said, it's likely more directly attributable to the head of WB Games division rather than Zaslov himself. Top guys like that don't make decisions like the ones implemented in the games...they're big picture guys, not managing divisions. David Haddad is likely the guy making the call on stuff like this. Daddy WB is demanding better results and this is probably just how they're trying to make it happen.

EDIT:



The sad part about this is that it likely doesn't matter. DC's brand seems dead at the cinema and the damage done to them and comic book movies in general by DC's slate of awful movies and Marvel's ABYSMAL phase 4 and 5 slop have likely killed off profitability in that genre for big budget tent-pole stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if Gunn's stuff is never meaningfully allowed to get off the ground.
I read somewhere a few weeks back that WB mostly concerned about paying down their debt and building up free cash flow to set up for more acquisitions of other distressed companies & using the proceeds on the merger to pay down their debt. There's apparently talks about WB also merging with Paramount or buying NBCUniversal from Comcast.

If this is true, it's not a surprise that they want to drain everyone's bank accounts until they're dry like they’re a bunch of Twitter findoms. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, Mortal Kombat 11 made $500m of pure profit - a terrible game that was/is an unfinished buggy mess & filled with controversy such as treating their employees like shit, fatality research giving employees PTSD & the estimated cost to buy all the customization in the game on release being $6440 (until they were called out on it) but it still got 8/10s & an 86-88 (highest last gen & current gen) on Metacritic & still won awards the year of release. WB Games wants to replicate or top that success for Mortal Kombat 1.

Well this sucks. R.I.P. WB Games

 
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CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
I find this to be quite an interesting comment, since I actually saw very few complaints about MKX during its lifespan compared to MK11
Let's just say "very few complaints" is definitely revisionist history:
 

Felipe_Gewehr

Twinktile
Let's just say "very few complaints" is definitely revisionist history:
Again, you (and others) seem to gloss over the part that says "very few complaints compared to mk11". I also find it hilarious that this very thread lists things that were present in mk11 as well - "we hate having a reset button in practice mode"? Really?