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- This article was originally published prior to Mortal Kombat 1's announcement, covering the expected reveal and hints of the game being a reboot. The content of the article has now been updated to reflect known details.
Fighting game fans have long been anticipating a twelfth mainline entry to the long-running Mortal Kombat series, and now a new announcement has revealed Mortal Kombat 1 to be a soft reboot of the games' storyline. After a mysterious Mortal Kombat teaser last week that showed a clock skipping over 12 and moving to one, players had speculated this could be the case. It was previously announced that NetherRealm Studios plans to release the latest entry this year, and now this has been codified into an expected September 19, 2023 release date for Mortal Kombat 1.Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon (via Twitter) had doubled down on the hints that the title will be a brand-new, rebooted take on the series. Boon's tweet was then followed today, May 18, by the expected announcement via the official Mortal Kombat Twitter .
The new game, titled Mortal Kombat 1, will be a soft reboot, continuing on from one of Mortal Kombat 11's endings in which Fire God Liu Kang recreated the universe. While this is a potentially interesting turn for longtime MK fans, the soft reboot also has the potential to be an attractive prospect for newcomers.
What A Reboot Means For Mortal Kombat
The new entry seems to follow Mortal Kombat 11's good ending, which centered around Kang and Kitana working together in an attempt to ensure the best timeline came to . The large use of time travel and alternate timelines in MK11 set the stage for a sequel where just about anything is possible, which means the details of the title's plot are quite difficult to predict. The idea of the game being a reboot instead of an obligate follow-up to Mortal Kombat 11 means greater creative license can be taken when it comes to characters and narrative, giving Mortal Kombat 1 even more potential than it had as MK12.
Fans of fighting games have seen many announcements over the past few years of exciting titles, but a complete reboot of the Mortal Kombat series is arguably one of the most groundbreaking. After 11 intense installments, wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch offers many more opportunities to explore the in-game universe than a direct sequel. While there's still much left to learn about Mortal Kombat 1, it seems players have a lot to look forward to this year.
UPDATE: 2023/05/18 11:09 EST BY KYLE GRATTON
This article was originally published prior to Mortal Kombat 1's announcement, covering the expected reveal and hints of the game being a reboot. The content of the article has now been updated to reflect known details.
Source: Ed Boon/Twitter, Mortal Kombat/Twitter
