Warner Bros and NetherRealm Studios has announced the Mortal Kombat 1 Definitive Edition, which will contain all the DLC characters, new movie skins, “and more”. This newly packaged version of the gory fighter is available now, and offers a chance for folks to hop in with all the content. But this news has been met with an intense negative reaction, and stands out as especially dire given the recent Warner Bros quarterly financial report.
This definitive edition, which will more than likely be the final version of the game, comes only two years after its release back in 2023. Definitive does literally mean the end of something, after all. The game has sold, as far as we know, at least 5 million copies and remains a high ranker on monthly downloads on consoles, a fact recently highlighted by Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon. All this sounds like great news right? It is, but additional context paints a more complicated picture.
While Mortal Kombat 1’s 5 million sales figure sounds wonderful, Mortal Kombat X sold more than 12 million copies in its life, while Mortal Kombat 11 – the best seeling MK ever – broke the 15 million sales milestone. As such, Mortal Kombat 1’s sales performance seems significantly smaller than past releases would lead you to expect.
In the Warner Bros Q1 2025 financial report, the company highlighted a 48% decrease in revenue from its gaming department compared to last year. This was attributed to last year’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (which underperformed), and last year’s higher carry-over from Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1.
Why this is particularly frustrating for a portion of fans is that this definitive edition marks an end to a short life for Mortal Kombat 1. In September of last year, Ed Boon went on Twitter to state that the team had not begun work on NetherRealm’s next game, and “NetherRealm is still fully committed to supporting Mortal Kombat 1 for a long time to come.” To give Mr Boon a break, if Warner Bros wants NetherRealm to move onto a new game, that’s not exactly his call. I’m sure he and the team would be cool working on Mortal Kombat 1 for years if they could. But given this statement, you’ve got to wonder how far we are from NetherRealm’s next game if it’s had only eight months to work on it.
But it’s a bummer for Mortal Kombat fans! It feels as though a game that’s performing pretty well compared to other fighting games (albeit not prior MKs) is potentially getting the DLC rug pulled from under it. The competitive scene will now be left with a final version, kinda hampering its potential to grow, and it’ll fade out from people’s minds as they wait for Mortal Kombat 2 or Injustice 3, or what have you.
Unless of course they do continue to release DLC, despite calling it the definitive edition. Which… That would be wild, but you never know.
So yeah, spare a thought for the NetherRealm team, and let us know what you’d like to see from NetherRealm below!
