Mortal Kombat 2011 “to focus” on the “hardcore player”

By Stephany Nunneley

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has said the demand for complex fighting games has waned over the years.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Boon said there’s a misconception among the public that fighting games more for the hardcore.

“While I certainly think there is an audience for that, there’s not a very huge audience for the really complex [fighting] games. Unfortunately, the sales numbers kind of demonstrate that,” said Boon.

“When we make Mortal Kombat games, we’ve always tried to keep them accessible,” said Boon. “We really don’t want to put something in the game that 80 percent of the public will never experience or never be able to execute. I think that’s a recurring thing that we’re really trying to keep in mind, is if the average person will be able to enjoy, experience or execute this move.

“Unfortunately, I think that some people are associating [with the fighting genre] this kind of complexity that they don’t want to learn. That makes some developers shy away from [the genre] because it’s really such a niche market,” he said.

“We pretty actively play all of the fighting games that come out,” Boon said. “In terms of what we feel would’ve done well and what maybe could be done better, we really try to look at them. As far as Street Fighter is concerned, I’m a huge fan of Street Fighter, I have been since it came out. So Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV, I have a lot of respect and admiration for. But again, they have a different kind of pace and tone from us.”

While Boon laments the public’s preconceived notions one the fighting genre, he admitted to Gama the new Mortal Kombat will be aimed at the hardcore fighting player.

“Oddly enough, this [new Mortal Kombat] is the first one in a while that we’ve really made a conscious effort that we are going to focus hard on the hardcore player,” he said. “At the same time, we want to stay accessible. But the simple numbers of it is that there are just far, far more of the casual player than the hardcore player.

“We have some features in the game that are really layered into the game. I think the casual people will still have a good time, but they’re not going to dig as deep in terms of fighting mechanic, features and strategy.”

The new Mortal Kombat will include four-player and two-player modes, is out next year on PS3 and Xbox 360, and contains a “most robust online” system.