How Mortal Kombat Became the Best Selling Fighting Game Franchise Ever
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WB Games recently confirmed that Mortal Kombat 11 has sold over 12 million copies worldwide so far. That means that the Mortal Kombat franchise has sold more than 73 million games to engagement, which, as some analysts accept already pointed out, besides means that it now appears to exist the best-selling fighting game franchise always.
While WB has confirmed the lifetime sales of the Mortal Kombat franchise to date, it should exist noted that some of the other current sales figures for the other major fighting game franchises are either estimates or are based on reports that haven't been updated quite every bit recently. Having said that, it certainly appears that Mortal Kombat is at present the acknowledged fighting game franchise ever, which is even more impressive when you consider that information technology was nowhere close to dethroning Super Smash Bros . for that honor prior to the release of Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11 .
And so how did we become to this betoken? Well, the success of the Mortal Kombat franchise isn't a sudden affair nor is it one of those sales records that somehow make us question the direction of the video game manufacture or the tastes of gamers. No, Mortal Kombat 's success can instead be attributed to a series of factors that highlight only what an incredible job its diverse developers have done over the years and the unique place this series has in the manufacture, video game culture, and certainly in the hearts of fighting game fans everywhere.
The Indelible Novelty of Mortal Kombat's Violence
Look, you lot probably don't need a complete rundown of how the original Mortal Kombat 'southward violence helped prepare it autonomously. At a fourth dimension when violent video games were still a novelty, Mortal Kombat offered one of the virtually celebratory violent gaming experiences the world had ever seen upwards until that indicate. It triggered Congressional hearings, protests, lawsuits, and, most importantly for our current purposes, an incredibly successful fighting game franchise.
What doesn't get talked about quite as much, though, is how Mortal Kombat 'south violence has remained something of a novelty even every bit the idea of violent video games becomes much more common. See, there was a specific era of video games in which developers were trying to use violence/extreme content to court controversy for their games (Rockstar'due south excellent Manhunt is one of the better examples of that era). Information technology was kind of like the torture porn era for major horror movies. Nosotros experienced it, the fad burned out, and many of us left a picayune more than numb to the idea of extreme violence as a draw. More and more than game studios dialed back on the idea of implementing such incredible levels of violence, not necessarily on moral grounds, but because it slowly became less of a claw/novelty.
Mortal Kombat is different. The franchise could go toe-to-toe with most of the nigh violent video games released over the terminal 30 years or and then from a pure content perspective, but Mortal Kombat 's violence has always been…fun. It's less of a torture porn scenario where violence is meant to disturb and test you and more like an '80s slasher where the violence is so cartoonish and over-the-superlative that it's often difficult to have it seriously. It's all virtually having fun, which is still a novelty compared to toned-downwards violence, violence as biting (sometimes hard to process) social commentary, or violence that is trying also difficult to exist controversial.
Mortal Kombat Is I of the Most "Accessible" Fighting Game Franchises
Talking nearly "accessibility" in fighting games is ever tough. It'southward a topic that draws gatekeepers who look down on the very concept of accessibility in gaming equally well equally those who think they're defending a game by arguing it'southward not really that accessible from a mechanical standpoint.
When we talk about Mortal Kombat 's accessibility, though, it's only as a positive. In fact, it's non just about the game's mechanics. Yes, the original Mortal Kombat games were perhaps "simpler" than something like Street Fighter , but every bit the series grew, it certainly adopted more than complicated gameplay systems that elevated it in the eyes of some genre purists. I'd argue that modern Mortal Kombat games boast better pick-up and play credentials than some of its genre competitors, just you lot're apparently not going to convince anyone who believes that is an inherently bad matter that information technology's actually a very impressive quality.
No, the real magic of Mortal Kombat 'south accessibility is how the franchise's various developers and designers over the years have maintained this aureola of approachability that the series boasts to this day even as it has become a much deeper fighting game series. As we noted above, Mortal Kombat feels more fun than intimidating in a mode that even some of the best fighting game franchises tin't equal. As nosotros'll look at beneath, a lot of the means the Mortal Kombat teams over the years accept achieved and maintained that paradigm can be attributed to the elements of their games that they've intelligently chosen to emphasize over their closest competitors.
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Mortal Kombat is More than Satisfying to a Much Wider Audition
You could mayhap label this idea nether "accessibility," simply it'southward really a slightly different indicate that proves to be very important when you're trying to comprehend the incredible staying ability of the Mortal Kombat franchise later all these years. "Accessibility" is what tin can assist go gamers in the door and form their first impressions. What matters from there is how those players feel once they starting time spending time with the game, and that's where Mortal Kombat really pulls ahead of some other notable fighting game franchises.
See, whether you play on the easiest difficulty setting and enable ane-button fatalities or choose to chief every combo and graphic symbol, Mortal Kombat is really all about performing over-the-top moves with over-the-meridian characters in over-the-summit environments while enjoying a, you guessed information technology, over-the-top story. That'south the cadre of the Mortal Kombat experience, and it'southward the big reason why you'd ever bother to play 1 of these games.
You lot tin can relish the "core" Mortal Kombat feel no matter how proficient you are at the game. More experienced players can bask an evolved course of that feel that grows equally they do, just the central appeal of this franchise doesn't demand a sure level of commitment. Ironically enough, that's oft what inspires a wider audience to spend more time with it in the first place.
Mortal Kombat'south Story, Characters, and World Give it a Personality That Many Other Fighting Games Don't Accept
Again, there'south no signal in arguing that Mortal Kombat features improve characters, stories, and world-building than Street Fighter , Guilty Gear , Tekken , or any of the other greatest fighting game franchises. That's manifestly a subjective argument.
What'south a fiddling easier to objectively argue is the idea that the Mortal Kombat team has called to emphasize those elements more than than other fighting games traditionally have. Mortal Kombat initially distinguished itself from Street Fighter 2 by offering a more cinematic (and evidently violent) gaming experience, and while you can still debate about which of those games were better, that kind of experience simply reached an audience that included many who would have otherwise never paid attention to a fighting game.
Over the years, Mortal Kombat developers from various studios take stuck with what brought the franchise to the trip the light fantastic, so far as emphasizing those personality-based elements go. It hasn't ever been perfect, but the fairly recent decision to plow Mortal Kombat 's campaigns into this kind of cinematic universe has only helped ensure that more than people continue to follow this franchise if only to lookout what happens next. The Mortal Kombat franchise slowly forced other fighters to follow in its footsteps, and it honestly however does those "cinematic" elements better, or as good, as anyone else.
Mortal Kombat Constantly Reinvents Itself
Look, the Mortal Kombat franchise is far from perfect. In fact, I think you'll find that other fighting game franchises may just be better on an installment past installment basis. At that place accept certainly been Mortal Komba t games that have been cleanly outsold by their competitors over the years.
Yet, that strangely makes Mortal Kombat 's success all the more impressive. When Mortal Kombat 4 made people question whether or not the novelty of the series had passed, the Mortal Kombat squad decided to drastically change their design philosophy with the release of the surprising (and successful) Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance . That approach was all the same commercially viable by the time that Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was released, but in response to criticisms that things were starting to get a bit stale, NetherRealm Studios boldly decided to accident everything up once again with 2011'south vivid Mortal Kombat reboot.
At that place are few other franchises in all of gaming that accept been this consistently committed to keeping things fresh even at times when "more than of the same" would have been enough for many. You can signal to a lot of factors that accept contributed to Mortal Kombat 'southward incredible success over the years, only let's not forget that at the heart of it all are some really good games.
Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/games/mortal-kombat-best-selling-fighting-game-franchise-record-history/
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