The PlayStation 3 version of Mortal Kombat features Kratos, but where is the love for Xbox owners? Eurogamer cornered Mortal Kombat supremo Ed Boon and asked him.
“I’m not allowed to talk too much about it, but I can tell you we certainly wanted to do an exclusive for 360, but that’s all I can say. It was not a decision we made where we said, oh, let’s not do one for the 360,” he said.
Sounds like someone slipped NetherRealm a lovely piece of cherry pie in exchange for Kratos being the only non Mortal Kombat character in the game. It appears that the development team were planning an Xbox character but the cherry pie was so tasty they nommed it all and the Microsoft console lost out.
“Anybody who’s really knowledgeable about the Xbox video games, the big titles, names like Master Chief from Halo, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, and any other Xbox exclusive title, is going to come up in a conversation in talking about it. So clearly we’ve discussed it,” said Ed.
“But, like I said, it wasn’t something we decided, no, we don’t want to make a 360 version of a character.”
So to conclude: Master Chief could have been in Mortal Kombat but NeatherRealm did not put him in and the large cheque from Sony very tasty cherry pie is to blame.
Nom.
Source: Eurogamer
3shirts
To be honest, I can’t think of an Xbox exclusive character that would make that much sense in MK. Kratos fits perfectly because he already is a brutal hand to hand brawler with plenty of blood and gore in his games.
Master Chief and Marcus Fenix are not hand to hand fighters primarily and I can’t think of anyone else who is really.
Dan Lee
I would tend to disagree, especially with Master Chief. Whilst the Halo games don’t cover it well, the books detail the training etc that Spartans go through, and they are pretty effective melee fighters. Fenix reminds me of a Jax style character, too.
3shirts
Maybe but the books aren’t exactly read by the majority are they? I just think Master Chief in MK would feel a bit like a token inclusion rather than a natural decision. I mean Kratos is an ex-god Mortal and his looks, style and background all fit in the MK universe.
djhsecondnature
This exact topic was discussed in this weeks TSACast and I have to agree with the verdict. Most FPS characters just wouldn’t work in a fighting scenario, even Master Chief. And Fenix? He’d be awful.
SpikeyMikey23
Makes a change for Sony to get an exclusive when Microsoft doesnt. Doubt Microsoft give a shit though.
scavenga
What I read into it as a possible answer is that, maybe, they had developed such a character, but in the end they weren’t allowed to use it/the developers of that particular license got cold feet.
Nauraph
Just what I was thinking. Combined with what 3shirts just said.. Perhaps they couldn’t put an exisiting character in the MK setting, just because it wouldn’t fit that personality.
psychobudgie
I’ll third that. More than likely down to MS having one of their exclusive characters eviscerated for the users entertainment. Kratos is pre eviscerated so no problem in that department.
Nauraph
And yeah.. I’m somewhat defending PS3. ;)
Sympozium
Personally I don’t care about which console should have exclusive characters, like seriously never liked Kratos on Soul Caliber and I will likely never like Kratos on mortal Kombat.
Now if it was Dante then it would be different
Rocket_345
What Soul Caliber game was Kratos on. I don’t remember him on one but it’s ages since i played one so maybe he’s just slipped my mind.
Forrest_01
Soul Calibur IV – I was confused by this myself, but googled & sure enough, he was in IV (alongside Darth Vader if i recall correctly!).
Darksidesystems
He was in Soul Calibur Broken Destiny on PSP. I thought he fit in rather well…
Foxhound_Solid
Ps3 has oodles of characters that fit the MK Universe.
360 could have had Fenix from Gears or War. I think for them it would have fitted nicely.
Wouldnt have been funny for him going up against the almighty Kratos though. None of the other characters would stand a chance in theory.
Kratos FTW!
Forrest_01
Missed opportunity here methinks – They could have had the Xbox avatars going at it with the likes of Scorpion & Sub-Zero! :)
In reality though, that would just be a bit weird really wouldn’t it?
I agree that many xbox chracters wouldn’t really fit the MK ‘mould’ though. I see Xbox as more tailored to shooters.
PriceKitty
Ha! They deserve it.
Microsoft bribes too many developers to get exclusive extra content as it is.
Kovacs
You say bribe. I say execute sound business practices.
3shirts
Let’s call the whole thing off
Crazy_Del
Maybe they thought MK will flop and do not want an exclusive character to be involved lol, just saying Now to defeat Shaokahn!
tactical20
Any word on Freddy and Jason as DLC?
Forrest_01
I personally think that’s going a bit too far. I actually wouldn’t want either (where does it stop if you are going to include random film chracters as well?).
YOURMUMANDME
Clearly they forgot Alan Wake…
DRCD1
I can already see a special fatality:
“Christ, I forgot my batteries again”
Enemy charachter beheads him.