Foregoing what has become their usual pre-release schedule, NetherRealm Studios chose not to announce any upcoming projects at E3, namely Mortal Kombat 11.
Excitement hit fever pitch as the convention drew closer, spurred on by numerous leaks and rumours including a doubtful reveal at Combo Breaker 2018. The past few days have seen fans ignite social media with conjecture and anticipation; it wasn’t until day two rolled around that things became clearer.
Speaking to Giant Bomb host Jeff Gerstmann amongst panelists Jacob Mikkelson and Sven Liebold of IO Interactive, Dan Ryckert of Giant Bomb and Eric Pope of Ubisoft, NetherRealm Studios Creative Director Ed Boon did little to avoid a point blank question regarding the lack of a game reveal at this year’s convention.
(segment begins at 2:04:18)
Jeff Gerstmann: Ed, no game! What’s going on?Ed Boon: We’ve had E3s where there’s no game before, in the past.
Jeff: Definitely.
Ed: There’s definitely like a pattern we’ve been following that we’ve kind of broken out of, and I’m surprised how many people know about that pattern. I didn’t think that many people were taking, you know…writing it down. But it’s certainly something that we’re changing around, and I wish I could uhh…I’m chomping at the bit to talk about stuff, but at the moment, we have nothing that we’re announcing.
Jeff: Alright just tell me…is Stryker in it, or what? I mean, that was the cadence for a while: talk about the game at E3, ship in April type thing and I feel like Injustice 2, when I started thinking about it, when I started maybe piecing some things together to go: “I don’t think they’re gonna have a game there.” At first I was like, “Aww, man. E3 is cancelled.”
Ed: In the past, we’ve released some kind of an announcement trailer right before E3. So when we didn’t do something like that, the death threats started.
While the lack of news is certainly disappointing for those desperate to see what’s next, the break in tradition could mean we’re in for an extra special treat over the coming months. Judging by a number of tweets posted by Boon over the past few months, NetherRealm Studios’ future title is still expected to be related to Mortal Kombat in one way or another, though this is purely speculation at best.
