There is a rumor going around with the release of MK for the PS Vita that the MK Vita skins are "on the MK KE disc". This video is the one being used.
Unlike everyone spreading this news, I checked, and it's flat out not true. I may post more proof as needed, but this is just a quick post I built as I examined this "rumor"
Here is part of the contents, sorted alphabetically, of the CHAR portion on the MK Komplete Edition disc. The 15-16MB CHAR_* files are the models for the characters. If a character is playable, they'll have one of these. Each skin has it's own CHAR_ file too, so it's not just one file per character but one per SKIN.
You'll see here that Mileena has only 4 skin files on MKKE disc: A, B, D & E. Mileena has 5 skins on Vita: Costume 1, Costume 2, MK2, MK3 & the Nude costume. So she'd need another "C" skin file as well in order to have her MK2 skin.
I don't currently have a way to browse the Vita files, but if we did you'd see more CHAR_ files for the new skins on it compared to the KE disc.
You'll also above that Rain, Kenshi and Skarlet both have only one skin file on disc. No alts for them here either, or the other ninjas.
But the rumor is the CODE is there... not a model!
That was also said to, and it's actually partially true. There is in fact a configuration section for MK2 Mileena in the game's config file. And here it is:
This isn't CODE but rather a configuration for how things are treated. Lots of stuff like language localizations are in here too. Without the backing model data file and additional lines of configuration and actual in-game CODE, this bit of config is useless. This config data has been here since MK9 1.0 actually. It's not something new on MK9 KE. No other Vita exclusive skins exist in the configs at all, KE or otherwise.
Why did they not ship with her skin then? You may ask
That's easy. Each character file is 16MB, plus all the extra FATALITY and BABALITY models that'd be needed for this alternate skin. So it's not tiny and they likely ran out of room when they shipped MK9 and had to cut her from the game.
But the "Komplete Edition" has a lot more content on the disc now! They had the room!
Yes it does NOW but it may not have then. There is a reason that is possible though. Microsoft reserved over 1GB of space on that their discs for copy protection and other stuff. That all changed with the fall console update in late 2011 they changed that rule and gave 1GB of space back to developers to use. That more than likely allowed them to put all the skins and characters released as DLC back onto the new KE disc.
They likely NOW had room to add Mileena's MK2 skin onto the Komplete edition disc, but no other users would have that skin. Without that skin on everyone's game, it's useless online. They could add it in a patch, or "title update", but they have size limitations (hence the DLC "compatibility packs") and cost a lot of money. NetherRealm is likely trying to avoid patches as well to avoid future desync issues with online games.
Then why no Vita skins in "Komplete" edition?!
As I said above each character skin is a whole new model and is about 16MB on the Xbox/PS3. Adding in another 16 skins would make the game at least 256MB bigger, but that doesn't count the FATALITY and BABALITY support files that are also on the disc FOR EACH SKIN. So it'd likely be closer to 0.5GB for all those skins.
The Xbox 360 MK disc clocks in at 7.85GB, just barely under the 7.95GB limit of a DL DVD. And for all we know, they were at their limits already and this extra 100MB is just extra free space on the disc used by MS. Clearly no room for 400-500MB of extra content.
So again there is no room for the Vita skins, if they even exist. For all we know the new skins for Vita were designed for the Vita only. They may not exist in the console art pipeline at the size and resolutions needed for Xbox or PS3.
Could they be created and offered as DLC?
Sure anything is possible, but this would require a lot of extra work, QA and a costly console Title Update. So wont be cheap AT ALL. Then we may also get into the desync issues online again if things go wrong since not everyone would have the new content and no one wants that.
I'd rather have NetherRealm focus their attention on whatever is next for Mortal Kombat instead of adding skins to a year old console game.
Unlike everyone spreading this news, I checked, and it's flat out not true. I may post more proof as needed, but this is just a quick post I built as I examined this "rumor"
Here is part of the contents, sorted alphabetically, of the CHAR portion on the MK Komplete Edition disc. The 15-16MB CHAR_* files are the models for the characters. If a character is playable, they'll have one of these. Each skin has it's own CHAR_ file too, so it's not just one file per character but one per SKIN.

You'll see here that Mileena has only 4 skin files on MKKE disc: A, B, D & E. Mileena has 5 skins on Vita: Costume 1, Costume 2, MK2, MK3 & the Nude costume. So she'd need another "C" skin file as well in order to have her MK2 skin.
I don't currently have a way to browse the Vita files, but if we did you'd see more CHAR_ files for the new skins on it compared to the KE disc.
You'll also above that Rain, Kenshi and Skarlet both have only one skin file on disc. No alts for them here either, or the other ninjas.
But the rumor is the CODE is there... not a model!
That was also said to, and it's actually partially true. There is in fact a configuration section for MK2 Mileena in the game's config file. And here it is:
Code:
[CHAR_MILEENA_C]
SourceAsset=CHAR_RetroNinja_Female_MK2
Mileena_Expressions=RetroNinja_Female_MK2_Expressions
SourceMapping=CHAR_Mileena
MeshName=RetroNinja_Female_MK2
BabyName=NPC_Mileena_C_Baby
BabyScript=NPC_Mileena_C_Baby.mko
This isn't CODE but rather a configuration for how things are treated. Lots of stuff like language localizations are in here too. Without the backing model data file and additional lines of configuration and actual in-game CODE, this bit of config is useless. This config data has been here since MK9 1.0 actually. It's not something new on MK9 KE. No other Vita exclusive skins exist in the configs at all, KE or otherwise.

Why did they not ship with her skin then? You may ask
That's easy. Each character file is 16MB, plus all the extra FATALITY and BABALITY models that'd be needed for this alternate skin. So it's not tiny and they likely ran out of room when they shipped MK9 and had to cut her from the game.
But the "Komplete Edition" has a lot more content on the disc now! They had the room!
Yes it does NOW but it may not have then. There is a reason that is possible though. Microsoft reserved over 1GB of space on that their discs for copy protection and other stuff. That all changed with the fall console update in late 2011 they changed that rule and gave 1GB of space back to developers to use. That more than likely allowed them to put all the skins and characters released as DLC back onto the new KE disc.
They likely NOW had room to add Mileena's MK2 skin onto the Komplete edition disc, but no other users would have that skin. Without that skin on everyone's game, it's useless online. They could add it in a patch, or "title update", but they have size limitations (hence the DLC "compatibility packs") and cost a lot of money. NetherRealm is likely trying to avoid patches as well to avoid future desync issues with online games.
Then why no Vita skins in "Komplete" edition?!
As I said above each character skin is a whole new model and is about 16MB on the Xbox/PS3. Adding in another 16 skins would make the game at least 256MB bigger, but that doesn't count the FATALITY and BABALITY support files that are also on the disc FOR EACH SKIN. So it'd likely be closer to 0.5GB for all those skins.
The Xbox 360 MK disc clocks in at 7.85GB, just barely under the 7.95GB limit of a DL DVD. And for all we know, they were at their limits already and this extra 100MB is just extra free space on the disc used by MS. Clearly no room for 400-500MB of extra content.
So again there is no room for the Vita skins, if they even exist. For all we know the new skins for Vita were designed for the Vita only. They may not exist in the console art pipeline at the size and resolutions needed for Xbox or PS3.
Could they be created and offered as DLC?
Sure anything is possible, but this would require a lot of extra work, QA and a costly console Title Update. So wont be cheap AT ALL. Then we may also get into the desync issues online again if things go wrong since not everyone would have the new content and no one wants that.
I'd rather have NetherRealm focus their attention on whatever is next for Mortal Kombat instead of adding skins to a year old console game.
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