Midway has updated their Official Mortal Kombat website for the United Kingdom - ItsInUsAll.com with MK: Deception content. It confirms the European release date for MK: Deception of November 19th 2004. It also offers some downloads and media that is already available on the Official MK:Deception website.
They also have details of a MK: Deception Tournament that started last week and will continue through the first week of December at various universities and gamestations across the UK. The grand champion will be given a "once in a lifetime trip to Asia"! The dates and locations are all posted on the site. This sounds like a great tournament, so good luck to all the MK competitors out in the UK!
Continuing the recent wave of media attention surrounding the upcoming Mortal Kombat spin-off game Shaolin Monks, IGN has posted a short article about the game and how it wont be another MK:Mythlogies. Here's a snippet from the article:
Determined to learn from past mistakes (anyone up for some Mortal Kombat Mythologies…No?), Creator Ed Boon revealed Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, an action-adventure game that once again takes the series away from straight-up fighting arenas and into a larger world, replete with a fresh storyline, action-based puzzles, boss battles and a two-player cooperative mode. And what would a Mortal Kombat game be without its kolorful kast of kharacters? Midway will deliver a slew of characters that make small cameo as well as larger significant appearances.
They also put up 9 new screenshots, of which a few have been seen before.
A press release today announces Midway's agreement with Games Inc to bring some of Midway's classic arcade titles into the wireless and web arena using Games Inc's existing properties. This agreement also includes a "online tournament and league version" of Mortal Kombat. Other games mentioned are Touchmaster, Spy Hunter and Defender. The first games should debut as soon as January 2005. Here is what Games Inc.'s CEO, Roger Ach, had to say about the deal:
"Midway's Classic Arcade games will be another important component of our goal to make Games, Inc. the centerpiece of Branded Online multi-player and single-player content. Midway and relationships such as this, serve as more examples of how Games is focused on executing its business plan to strengthen our Branded Online multi-player and single-player content and build shareholder value.''
We hope to get more details soon about this agreement.
This afternoon Midway Games had their 3rd Quarter 2004 Results Conference Call. They touched on many details of their finances due to current titles like Mortal Kombat: Deception and Midway Arcade Classics Volume 2 and future plans for the next generation consoles. Here is a brief rundown of the call, you can also listen to the call until Wednesday November 9th.
Moral Kombat: Deception
Has continued to gain top critic reviews, shipped one million units and was #1 game for the first week of release in major retailers EB Games and Gamestop.
Approved for International Release by both Sony and Microsoft, that release is later this month for Europe. When it comes to global sales, domestic takes about 60-65% of all sales, while international takes the remaining 30-35%. So there are still a significant number of copies to be made overseas.
The $59.99 "Kollectors Editions" sold out at all retailers and "counts for one third of all sales of all mortal kombat deception games to date".
Because of the strong sales of MKD in US and approving of the game for International markets, they expect Midway Games will have its first profitable Quarter since 1999.
Midway Arcade Classics Vol. 2
Profitable example of their use of existing Intellectual Property.
More similar titles to come soon. (Maybe we'll finally get UMK3 and MK4?)
Plans for 2005 and beyond...
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is slated for debut next year. It expands the MK franchise into the action/adventure genre while taking advantage of the established mythology of the MK Universe.
Goal to be a major player in next generation of consoles. This is something they feel they failed the transition last time and it's a priority this time to be on the "front line" this time.
One new license is Fear and Respect that is being developed along with director John Singleton (Boyz' In The Hood, 2 Fast 2 Furious).
Expanding existing Intellectual Property with the release of Area 51, which is being worked on by the Austin, TX development company, Inevitable Entertainment, which was recently purchased by Midway.
Publishing the new Unreal and Unreal Tournament games slated for next year.
Estimate that around 2nd Quarter next year, front line titles that are normally $49.99 will lower to the $39.99 price point because of the new generation systems expected debut by the end of the year.
In continuance of a lifelong pledge to provide the Mortal Kombat community with game guides that are 100% Accurate and 100% Confirmed, TRMK proudly announces the release of an innovative update to our online Mortal Kombat Deception Strategy Guide. All information in the guide has been tested to the highest accuracy personally by TRMK Staff members.
TRMK'sMortal Kombat Deception Strategy Guide is a one-stop shop for all gamers seeking for help in unlocking all the elements of Mortal Kombat Deception. This update adds a revolutionary interactive Konquest Guide, featuring a first-of-its-kind context-sensitive interactive map. The guide aids gamers by giving them the ability to visually access context-sensitive help for a certain portion of the game; while at the same time, allowing elements to be removed from the map that are not of concern to the user.
The guide also contains a fully complete Kombatants & Krypt section, containing every kombatant's move in the game and the content of each koffin in the Krypt. And to help out users with other issues and questions, we have also added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to the guide that will cover many questions about the game that are common in the community.
We will be updating our Konquest Guide to display all currently known side missions in the game over the next few weeks, and also will be expanding the FAQ section with common Questions & Answers as they come up. This release is just the beginning of what is the most comprehensive Mortal Kombat Deception Strategy Guide available to gamers anywhere, in any medium.
GameFly, an online video game rental service, issued a press release detailing its Top 10 Rentals for October. Mortal Kombat: Deception for the Xbox was second highest in total rentals, right behind the new Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game. The PlayStation 2 version of Mortal Kombat: Deception took the seventh slot, rounding out the top 10. Here's a little bit from the press release.
The latest in the Mortal Kombat franchise was second-most popular among GameFly users. Mortal Kombat: Deception wowed fans with a variety of new fighters, as well as returning favorites, the ability to play online, and several new modes of gameplay.
Spike TV today announced the categories, nominees and several performances scheduled for the 2nd annual VIDEO GAME AWARDS, hosted by Snoop Dogg premiering LIVE from Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA on Tuesday, December 14 at 9 PM ET/8C.
Unlike last year's debacle, the nominees have been selected by an advisory board, made up of a group of gaming industry experts. The winners will be determined by the advisory board along with fan voting on SpikeTV.com starting Today, November 16th until December 14th. Here are the nominees for best fighting game.
BEST FIGHTING GAME
Def Jam: Fight For New York (Electronic Arts)
Dead or Alive Ultimate (Tecmo)
Fight Night 2004 (Electronic Arts) Mortal Kombat: Deception (Midway)
WWE: Smackdown! vs. Raw (THQ)
One of our Kommunity Forum members, jb243, has started a thread with a link to an online petition to get Threshold Entertainment to release the TV series Mortal Kombat: Conquest on DVD in the US and Canada (Region 1). We encourage all of our readers to go sign the petition to help this cause so we can get this DVD released for all the MK: Conquest fans out there.
We would like to take a moment to welcome all of our European readers to the release of Mortal Kombat Deception. In a few hours stores in Europe will be opening their doors and Mortal Kombat Deception will be on sale in most markets November 19th. While it may have been hard to sit back and watch the US market enjoy Deception more than a month earlier, waiting has its benefits. TRMK has found all of the unlockable hidden secrets and have made them available to you in some really unique presentations.
Second and most importantly, our fully tested and confirmed Interactive Konquest Guide contains every mission, chest, and krypt key available in Deception's vast Konquest Mode. Once you've gotten your keys, you're going to want to unlock all of the koffins in the Krypt Guide, where we list the contents of all 400 koffins for your convenience.
Also, if you don't have easy access to your PlayStation 2 or Xbox from your computer, our Konquest Guide and Kombatants Guide both now feature printable versions. Print your sheets out and play with quick access to TRMK Konfirmed Kontent, knoweldge you can trust.
On today's episode of The Screensavers on G4techTV, the show's new host Kevin Pereira aired the first episode of his new humorus flash cartoon "Game Characters on their Day Off". The first episode is entitled "Scorpion Goes Fishing", and details Scorpion's methods in the great sport of fishing. (Shameless Plug: It also features some sound clips provided by yours truely!)
For those who missed it, don't worry: today's episode will be replayed tomorrow November 30th at 12pm ET/9am PT and on this Saturday December 4th at 4pm ET/1pm PT. We'll also see if we can get a link to the flash animation from Kevin for those who missed it or can't get G4techTV where they live.
Also, G4techTV will be re-airing their Icon's episode on the History of MK. It appears to be a rerun of a show aired in September before Mortal Kombat: Deception came out, but we don't remember seeing it before now. It will be airing on Thursday December 2nd at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT along with three times this Friday December 3rd at 1:30am ET/10:30pm PT, 9:30am ET/6:30am PT and 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT.
Today Midway announced via a Press Release that they are aquiring the Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks deveoper Paradox Development. Paradox Development was founded in 1994 and has developed 13 titles since, seven of which are fighting games; including the infamous yet-unreleased title Thrill Kill. This is third of Midway's recent external development studio purchases over the past few months, the others include Surreal Software who was behind Midway's hit title The Suffering and Inevitable Entertainment behind Midway's upcoming Area 51. Here is a quote from Midway President and CEO David Zucker from the article:
"In acquiring Paradox Development, we have added a talented and established developer that not only deepens our internal product development organization but also brings incremental fighting-genre expertise to Midway. We have made great strides in improving our overall quality of games, and the industry and our customers have recognized this accomplishment. Today's acquisition further strengthens our ability to expand on our current portfolio of games and produce new high quality, top-selling games for the future. Furthermore, the Paradox teams' expertise in the fighting genre is an excellent fit with Midway's product strengths and will help us extend the Mortal Kombat franchise into the action-adventure genre and release a highly engaging title in the Mortal Kombat universe annually."
