I wouldn't call 3D Era as being identity crisis. Also calling MK4 rushed is a bit too much as well. First of all they tested out the waters with "War Gods". Once they KINDA got the hang of the tech, they quickly moved on to MK4. Unfortunately the game was not met with lots of positive feedback. Even so they persisted. MK
A and MK
turned out to be massive success for them and boi did they print the money. And ironically enough, Amageddon's failure wasn't the fault of MK's team, but Midway's. Due financial crisis they were facing, which forced Armageddon to be rushed. Hence why no proper endings, clone characters and botched systems like Kreate-A-Fatality.
MK9 being 2.5D made sense. It was a retelling of original MK and a love letter to fans. It wasn't just gameplay, it was the well written characters, good story, interesting modes. THERE WAS SHIT TO DO. MKX being 2.5D didn't bother me much, but I could already tell signs of stagnation. Not to mention a lot of people didn't like fighting there. So once Injustice 2 came, everyone rushed to it and then... it died and everyone went back to MKX, because Injustice 2 was even worse. NRS should have taken hints. Nope. Injustice 2 with gore. Here comes MK11.
So what MK11 is? Good? Great? Let's do reality check. Do you people find it interesting? Yeah? Ok, good for you. I am glad that you enjoyed it. There are also people that for some unknown reason enjoyed games like MindJack and Ride to Hell: Retribution. But that doesn't change one simple fact. And yes. A FACT.
Mortal Kombat 11 is a failure.
Numbers speak. Did it sell tons of copies in the first 1 month? It sure did. Good for... shareholders. But how the game fares itself? Barely ANYONE watches it during tourneys. Pros themselves can't decide what the f%ck do they make of MK11. "Everything I ever wanted, and here is a 3 hour long list of all things I hate about MK11".
EVO, the biggest tourney for fighting games, was WEAAAAAK for MK11. It was actually more pathetic than sad, to watch them being destroyed by years old games like Street Fighter or Tekken. Hell Samurai Shodown that JUST came out, beat MK's ass.
And where are the problems? Well... everything that MK11 could have done wrong... it did wrong.
Alienated a number of fans with their politics? Check.
Insulted fans, by claiming that they don't care how many fans they will disappoint? Check.
Screwed over fan favorites? (Frost is a cyborg, instead of human (NOBODY ASKED FOR THAT), Scarlet changing her backstory like 3 times in the same trilogy and if they continue with that, Sindel suddenly becoming into a piece of shit, instead of a selfless queen everyone knew her for). Check
Variation system limited and not giving options for players to have their own playstyle? Check,
Fatal Blow system considered stupid by pretty much every single pro I watch. Check (I can say I speak for almost all of them, cause compared to other games, MK has hilariously small numbers of pros).
And the biggest mistake. SOLELY catering to Casuals. Check.
Where are those defenders now? Where are the people that screamed, saying that "Oh the casuals are important they keep the game running! They finance the game!" Where?
Oh ok. So how come, that MK11, that gave pretty much everything to casuals at this point, is at the VERY BOTTOM of FGC?
Yet TEKKEN 7 the most casual UNFRIENDLY game (no tutorials, no proper arcade, bowling is a dlc and is single player only) is wiping the fookin floor with MK11? In it's own home turf as well! Tekken shits on MK11 in NA too! Why?
Cause Mortal Kombat 11 is not having just identity crisis. It sold its soul. NRS just don't understand what drives people. Fatalities and gore were always the extra special sauce, not the main event. If they concentrated on making a new innovative fighting game, instead of focusing on useless shit like FACE SCANNING TECHNOLOGY (which they couldn't even do properly, as they were using their "CUSTOM ENGINE" a.k.a Unreal Engine 3) and pushing Fatalities into the spotlight, they could have been the Kings all over again. I remember when MK and SF were fighting for number 1 spot. Now, MK is like an ant for SF.
And it really shows how ignorant they are. Ed Boon being the dumbass he is, shat on MK9 in Playboy interview few months ago, stating that if he could, he would change things in MK9. As some things were "overboard".
Man... how can you shit on a game that is considered by many as the best MK9 to date? A game that lit the flame again? How disconnected are you from reality? His freaking July 9th tweet showed that people voted MK9 the best game ever. By insane vast majority too.
He is an idiot, and MK as a franchise is lost. You can claim that game is good for you and that is fine. But numbers speak for themselves. The game is dying. Numbers are dropping. It is Tekken and SFV that are making the money flow. They are the ones that are getting all those nice sponsor deals. Not MK11.
Will the numbers drop to Injustice 2 levels? I don't think so. But will the game be relevant by the end of the year. Of course not. DLC characters don't keep games alive. It is the content in the game. You can bring as many characters as you want. Nobody gives a shit. Even if Fujin gets brought back, or they give Frost human version. Only a handful of people will join. Try them out, get bored and leave. That's it.
Shit.. [MENTION=18296]TheBionicWoman70's[/MENTION] is right as well. Look at this forum. Dead. You think TRMK is the only one like that? No. MK forums all over place are dead.
Cause. Nobody. Gives. A. Shit anymore. I can go to any SF or Tekken forum right now and will find hundreds of people talking right this very moment. But this game... It is... f%cked. That's what it is. That's the reality. You can replicate MK9 formula only so much, before it gets stagnant. MK is the only series that is now at 11 iteration. The only fighting game that has a life cycle of 6 months. The only franchise that keeps resetting their story with time travel, once they write themselves into the corner.
That's... what we have now.