Mortal Kombat 1's Microtransaction Backlash Prompts Free Fatalities

Weak move by WB

Unless there are idiots who buy, they won't stop...

"Now the firm has said it “appreciates your feedback” on the game, and as a make good, it’ll provide anyone who purchased the Halloween Fatality with a bonus Thanksgiving Fatality and Winter Fatality. These will be sold as part of a Seasonal Fatalities bundle from next week, but it’s not yet confirmed how much it’ll cost."

The news here is not that they are giving "free" fatalities (they are not), but that there is going to be a "Seasonal Fatalities Bundle". This is what should have been in the title of the article. There is no "win" for the consumer here.

There's no hope for western AAA games anymore, only indies, japanese games, and retro games is worth playing now 😕

So Warner Bros Games are sorry, and to show this, they're offering people who were fleeced, free items from a bundle that they're hoping will fleece more players in the future?

Sort of a sorry-not-sorry response by Warner Bros Games.

I don’t see any mention of the aggressive monetization in Push Square’s review. Were they added after launch or is that an oversight on the reviewer’s part?

@wiiware Would that be the same Japan that Konami comes from?

Kinda with @Olmaz here in that it seems like the real story here is that more monetisation is on the way in the form of seasonal fatality bundles. Less of an apology and more of a doubling down, no?

People complain about paid seasonal fatailities.
WB respone: We're going to release a whole bundle of
Paid Seasonal Fatalities next week, you get 2 for free!

This is not a solution and only panders to the people who were stupid enough to buy this overpriced content to begin with.

That's the same logic as giving vegetarians more steaks, after you accidentally served them steak, instead of lettuce.

I say that's good for WB. They're a business and if people are daft enough to buy then well done to WB. Stop buying and they'll stop selling but unfortunately, some people see something new and shiny and can't help themselves.

So basically they are sorry that they thought they could get away with it. Also you still have to buy the fatality which is greedy monetisation

@NinjaNicky The issue here is that you can't put all the blame on the consumer. These companies are spending huge money to research the best way to make microtransactions as addictive as possible.
There are videos of John Ritticello showing how these executives want gamers at their most vulnerable when the decision to buy or not comes up. Not saying gamers shouldn't have more self control, but that everything needed to make them lose that self control is done by publishers.

@NinjaNicky

What you said is so true; if there's a demand for something, Warner Bros Games (and other Publishers) are obviously going to exploit this demand by doing stuff like this.

Personally, I don't know why any gamer would want to actually purchase fatalities for actual money.

You also can't tell someone how to spend their money, so if they want to spend it on paid fatalities, there's nothing we can really do about it.

Monetization is getting worse and worse isn't it.

@somnambulance Can we even call them microtransactions anymore?

Boycotts are the only way to stop this.

Not that this really has anything to do with the whole microtransactions thing and yeah it’s Mortal Kombat but I gotta say while the Halloween Fatality was kinda cool this Thanksgiving one is just downright disgusting. And not in a hahaha he beheaded that guy and blood squirted out sorta thing like Mortal Kombat is known for. But like disgusting as in somebody with like a dark web vomit fetish would enjoy but no one else.

They did this to the Shadow of Mordor series and ruined it if I’m not mistaken. Just wait for Kill the Justice League lol, pass…

@somnambulance Next step megatransactions where you need a loan from the bank to buy them. Overwatch is a great example locking skins behind a pass of €30 that the price of a nice indie game it's getting way out of hand.

I'm sure there will be a Complete edition at some point. I'll wait.

@wiiware Dead or Alive by the Japanese company Koei Tecmo is possibly the most shockingly monetised series in gaming history. I think that one of the games asked you to spend close to £1000 to "own" all of the costume variations.

This is the "new" gaming form, and you all need to get used to it. Trash games, full of bugs @ release, MTX shops w/ all the good stuff severely overpriced, and non stop "content/DLC' that's over priced. And "fools" always lap it up.

This is the NEW gaming way....I have YET to see one game release in the last 10 years, that didn't need multiple patches to fix it and almost always, there are "add ons/MTX" shops attached to sucker the suckers into spending even more on the game.

Gaming has become such a joke, that SMART players wait until games end up in the bargain bin to play them, and all the "kinks" have been worked out, and a lot of the cash crud is added into the pricing....

Prime example, I'm just NOW playing Horizon Zero Dawn, as I got it for 12 bucks, complete edition. Already put in over 75 hours first play through, so my 12 bucks was well spent....Awaiting "WEST" to end up in the bargain bin next....

Hehe, toodles to all you who keep doing "first day/launch" full price gaming. IMO, you're the suckers who got suckered.

As for WB, they're pretty pathetic. I was waiting until Black Friday to buy this game as it's a 3rd party multiplat, but now, as a real gamer, I will rightfully avoid it like the plague. FOMO only gets weak casual hobbyists, I can happily go my entire life never supporting anti-consumer companies.

WB ruined this game all the way back in 2009 when they scooped the company. They are openly admiring to turning every major franchise into service games.

This stuff was obnoxious in MK11 but they've ruined it now. I'm moving on. Screw Mortal Kombat. $10 for 1 fatality??? That's just ridiculous.

It’s the skins which do my head in. There’s a massive and nostalgic heritage of skins for them to tap into. The single player mode (a huge grind) let’s you basically unlock skins which dress every character as the themed character that month, while there is this rotating conveyor belt of beautiful skins harking back to older games, each one asking you to cough up money while there is no option at all to play to earn them.

It’s literally sickening that one of my very favourite IPs has gone so far down this path that it seems totally irredeemable.

@LazyLombax what was wrong with mortal kombat (2011) ?

@KennethKoerperich88 but its not new is it? Gamings been going this way for years now. I remember the horse armour outrage of oblivion and its just picked up momentum and now its an unstoppable juggernaught. I'm fortunate to have the ability to resist these things but some people have a compulsion to purchase these and thats why we are all here. Its a sad state the gaming industry is in.

@nomither6 Just saying MK was doomed the moment they bought the rights. Might not have shown back in 2011, but this was ultimately their plan for the franchise

@__jamiie The last doa is pretty bad, the previous one, especially doa 3 is great though.

@RubyCarbuncle Not only the mtx but the characters design and story is bad too, I watched some of them on youtube and man, this is not a game I want to spend $70 on it.

@LifeGirl Yes, also nintendo, capcom and from software. Weird question.