Mortal Kombat (2011 video game)

Mortal Kombat 9 is the working title for an upcoming new fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, currently in development by Warner Brothers, who bought the Midway studio and the rights to the series.

The game was first hinted at by developer Ed Boon on January 2009, shortly after the release of the previous game in the franchise, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

Recently, on June 18, Boon confirmed in his Twitter page that they were performing motion capture for the game. He also revealed that the game will not have superheroes in it, thus ruling out a sequel to Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and that they were aiming for a "Mature" rating, contrarily to the "Teen" rating attained by the previous game.

Fighters
As Ed Boon mentioned before, he promised he would bring back the gore and bloody violence as he said he would. Recently, in a Mortal Kombat site, Midway sent a public annoucement, saying they are hiring for some voice acts for certain characters for the upcoming Mortal Kombat game.

List of characters confirmed to be returning so far (and presumably survived Armageddon):


 * Jade


 * Sektor


 * Nightwolf


 * Cyrax
 * Smoke
 * Noob Saibot


 * Shang Tsung


 * Kung Lao


 * Jax
 * Johnny Cage
 * Liu Kang
 * Shinnok
 * Sindel
 * Kitana
 * Mileena
 * Tanya
 * Baraka
 * Raiden
 * Fujin
 * Kai
 * Jarek
 * Faryana
 * Sonya
 * Quan Chi
 * Bo' Rai Cho
 * Sub Zero
 * Scorpion
 * Ermac
 * Reptile
 * Rain
 * Sun
 * Kano
 * Goro
 * Shao Khan
 * Kintaro
 * Motaro
 * Sheeva

Voice talents are still unknown at this time, as yet Midway are still looking for voice acts and who should they portray as. Ed never said that it could be the last nor he said that it will be released in 2009. In fact he said that it won't be finished till next year, around mid-2010.

Development
The MK team mentioned and teased Mortal Kombat 9 again, which they jokingly referred to as MK9: Attack of the Dogs. People weren't sure what that means, but the audience said it'll be interesting to see what they have up their sleeves. Ed had mentioned before that development has already begun in some form.

Since Mortal Kombat 9 is the next game in the MK series, the game will be developed on an updated version of Midway's custom modified Unreal Engine 3 that was used on Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, and is expected to be released for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming consoles late in 2009.

The only thing the team has said about the game is it's tagline or codename is "Attack of the Dogs."However, since then, the company has been bankrupt and is set to be under " Midway Games filed Chapter 11."The US Bankruptcy Court, filing for Chapter 11, will allow Midway to reorganize it's business, reduce it's debts and get things moving in a much more positive direction to ensure their survival. Many companies have filed for Chapter 11 over the years, and have successfully emerged a few years later much stronger than before. Midway said they are expecting to be able to continue their daily operations as normal, as is common with Chapter 11 filings. This means that any work in progress already, will continue.

In May 21, 2009, Warner Bros. began a bidder with the Midway company, saying they will like to buy the company from them. Official word from Midway today that they have accepted a Stalking Horse bid of $33 million USD on the company by Warner Brothers. This would be the starting the bidding process for the sale of the company's assets. This doesn't mean Warner Brothers has purchased Midway, just means that they are the initial bidder in a auction that will go on over the next few months once bidding is started by the bankruptcy court. Also of note, their bid is $3M higher than the $30M that Midway estimated. We wouldn't be surprised if the final sale price is over the $33 million bid once the auction is closed.

It's unclear what is part of the sale, but it's for sure the Mortal Kombat franchise along with most of the company's US assets, including their Chicago offices. It does exclude a few parts things like the San Diego and UK studios along with the TNA Impact franchises. But It is assumed all their IP, including those gained from the purchase of Atari Games is included. Here is what the press release had to say about that.

Company's U.S. assets including its Mortal Kombat franchise and its development studios in Chicago and Seattle for a purchase price of $33,000,000, subject to adjustment as of the closing for changes in inventory, plus the agreed value of the Company's U.S. account receivables. The agreement does not include the Company’s development studio in San Diego and the TNA franchise games, nor does it include the Company’s development studio in Newcastle which had developed the Company's recently released Wheelman game Midway released a press release today detailing the time frame of the bidding process. All the bidding will take place in June, and a winning bidder will be chosen in early July. After which the sale will probably take some time to close and finalize, so the next two months will be very interesting indeed. But it sounds like development of Mortal Kombat 9 will likely continue under the new ownership. Midway recently announced a "stalking horse" asset purchase agreement, which is expected to receive court approval, subject to higher or better bids, in a hearing on June 2, 2009. Following this hearing, there will be a period during which Midway, through its financial advisor, Lazard, will accept binding offers up to June 24th, 2009, to acquire some or all of the Company's assets. An auction will be held on June 29th to determine the bid or combination of bids that achieves the highest value, followed by a court hearing to approve the sale to the winning bidder or bidders on July 1st, and then a final closing. All bids must comply with the bid procedures order to be issued at the hearing on June 2, 2009.

Release
It was confirmed by Ed that the game won't be finished until 2009