NetherRealm says it’s done releasing major updates for Mortal Kombat 1: ‘Our team … needs to shift focus to the next project’

In the world of fighting games, NetherRealm fighters are an odd duck. Games like Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, and Tekken tend to get souped up with DLC for half a decade or more before the next entry is even announced—but like Mortal Kombat 11 before it, Mortal Kombat 1 is dispensing with further major updates after around two years.

NetherRealm broke the news in a thread on X, saying “while we will continue to support Mortal Kombat 1 through balance adjustments and fixes, there will not be additional DLC characters or story chapters released from this point on.” A follow-up reply said the news is “disappointing for fans” but necessary to make the studio’s next game “as great as we possibly can.”

This all comes two years after creative director Ed Boon said on X that MK1 was meant to get more post-launch support than any Mortal Kombat before it. But where MK11’s end was declared after more than two years of support, the MK1 news comes only about a year and a half after the game’s release in September 2023.

While it had wacky pop culture crossovers worthy of the best modem MK games, our review touched on a certain sense of flair Mortal Kombat 1 was missing. As reviewer Robin Valentine put it, it felt “fated to be remembered as the least interesting of the modern MK games.” Still, fans hoping for more updates to build out its roster will have to wait for the next game, whether that’s Injustice 3 or Mortal Kombat, uh, 2.

In the meantime, I guess we’ll all have to pack ourselves into theaters for the Mortal Kombat movie like so many writhing, nostalgia-drunk sardines. If you haven’t tried MK1 and want to give it a go while the player base is still around, the game is available on Steam.