PC version of Mortal Kombat 9...

In my opinion all it takes for a dev to redeem themselves is one really good game. If MK9 was released on the PC and well done people would hail the triumphant return of Mortal Kombat to the PC. But they have to make an effort and not just let their executive producer ridicule potential customers.

If Warner Bros. really wanted to they could hire an outside studio to port the game to other systems like they have for other games in their catalog. For example, Batman Arkham Asylum & Arkham City for the Mac.. with both games the GOTY edition was ported by an outside studio "Feral Interactive". Ironically NRS did engine programming for Arkham City so that's the only thing they had a hand in that one can get on PC/Mac right now. You never know, they may actually do similar (hire a an outside studio to port it) sooner or later with MK9 but I'm not holding my breath.

Controls are a non-issue these days considering the wide range of peripherals the PC has... period. Sure they may screw things up by not offering configurable controls but even console versions of fighting games have configurable controls going back to the 16-bit days.
 
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I didn't actually say anything about SF4 and its quality...I was talking about MK.
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Let me quote some parts of your previous post:
Go check out SF4 on PC. Game is barely alive now. Nobody "jumped on it" too. Only a whooping of 962 players recommend this game on Steam.

Ahahaha. I can't even imagine on what kind of FAIL PC MK9 is going to be. Add on top the fact that Arcade Edition was so poorly ported nothing guarantees that MK9 is not going to have such issues.
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If you've meant the MK Arcade Kollection insted of SF4 Arcade Edition that's okay but I can't read your mind. Also MK AK is not a bad port, in some ways it is but the thing is that the game was quite badly put together on all the platform so it's not a PC specific issue at all.

Still does not matter. There are a lot of console port games which are based on popular engines and still are ported over so poorly that a dozen of patches are needed to get it to work properly.
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Give me an example where that is the case with a game that is running on the Unreal Engine. All I can come up with is Arkham City which was not a stellar port but performed okay.

I've just checked Steam Stats. The game at the bottom of the list ATM is Batman Arkham City GOTY with 396 players online and 859 at peak. Street Fighter Arcade Edition is no where seen in that list.

The game is barely alive.
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Stats don't really mean a damn thing but here are the stats for SF4 Arcade Edition: there are 3516 recommendations (Arkham City has 896) for it which is quite good (XCOM, a game that is highly successful since that day it was released has 11500 and that is a title where PC is the main platform) and there are 352 players playing right now (Arkham City has 966 players right now but the game's on sale and you can pikc up the GOTY Edition for 5 bucks so that's not too representative). The fact is that the game's doing very good if you take it to consideration that it is mainly a console title and it was relased 1 and a half year ago.

Some more stats of recent fighting games just for the sake of curiosity (BlazeBlue is not on Steam currently so I can't comment on that game):

Street Fighter X Tekken: 665 recommendations, don't know how many players currently but has to be close to zero (game was a massive failiure on all platforms)
Mortal Kombat Arcade Collection: 634 recommendations, no idea how many players currently (again it has to be pretty close to nothing)

So for SF4 Arcade Edition that means a massive success.

Yes, it is laziness. First of all, the ability to change the binds on the keyboard to suit the user should be an essential option. It will be up to the user to get used to it, but at least provide the option. Secondly, if you wanna go all competitive, and you suck with the keyboard, get a controller/game pad/whatever. This is natural. Take BF3 for example, Jet pilots with a Joystick are more accurate and can control the speed more to do sharper turns than the keyboard/mouse people. Still a lot of people do very well with keyboard and mouse given they have time to get used to it. Same would happen with fighting games, as long as we are given the options to customize the controls to our needs, getting used to it and do good is not the concern of the developer, it should be the concern of the player.
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Don't voice your opinion if you're not actually playing these games. You can rebind the keys in every fighting game there is in existence on PC (yes, even in MK4 and in the MK Arcade Kollection) and you simply can't compare it to an FPS, that's just ridiculous. :D No matter how you rebind your keys, you'll never be as good as players who use a controller or a fight stick because a keyboard is not fit for controlling a fighting game, period. A keyboard is designed for typing while a controller is designed for playing games, the buttons are easier to access, also controllers are almost always redesigned when a new console comes out so they are continuosly evolving and getting easier to use with every generation. I use mouse + keyboard for almost every game but there are some titles where I use a controller because no matter how skilled you are you'll just never beat people who acutally can play the game and are using more superior controls than you do.

I have never seen WB saying "nope, we don't wanna do this for PC", only seen tweets of NRS stating that.
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http://shoryuken.com/2012/02/22/warner-bros-no-current-plans-for-mortal-kombat-pc-version-but-we-are-gauging-interest-for-it/
 
When it comes to fighting games I would say the most superior control is an arcade stick.. I'd go out on a limb and say the most professional players use arcade sticks. That being said it's possible to be a mediocre or bad player with a controller or fight stick and a great player with just a keyboard regardless of what it was initially designed for. It all falls down to your skill... even with a level playing field where everyone uses the same "superior" controls such as the arcade unless of course the arcade operators failed at their duty of maintaining their machines and the controls are busted. Usually though it was never kosher to blame the controls for your lack of skill.

One could use the argument of a keyboard not being designed for games to say it's not even good enough for first person shooters but that's not true. I could say the same sort of anecdotal evidence for a keyboard having more easy to hit keys that one can bind more actions to.

BTW, I used to play the original MK games with a keyboard at one time and I learned different stuff from playing it that way which benefitted me later on going back to using an arcade stick.

So it's true that certain types of controls tend to be better than others for certain types of games. I personally stick to keyboard and mouse for FPS games, gamepads for platformers, fighting sticks for fighting games.. I recognize however that some people make due with "less optimal" controls for certain games and can actually beat players with more optimal controls depending on their relative skill.
 
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smoke.tetsu said:
In my opinion all it takes for a dev to redeem themselves is one really good game. If MK9 was released on the PC and well done people would hail the triumphant return of Mortal Kombat to the PC. But they have to make an effort and not just let their executive producer ridicule potential customers.

If Warner Bros. really wanted to they could hire an outside studio to port the game to other systems like they have for other games in their catalog (for example, Batman Arkham Asylum & Arkham City for the Mac). You never know, they may actually do this sooner or later such as the example of Alan Wake but I'm not holding my breath.

Controls are a non-issue these days considering the wide range of peripherals the PC has... period. Sure they may screw things up by not offering configurable controls but even console versions of fighting games have configurable controls going back to the 16-bit days.
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Your first sentence contains the same thing I believe in. No PC gamer will care for mistakes of the past if they get a good MK game. The Alan Wake is in my mind too as an example but that's a weird on because the game was published by Remedy, the development studio. They basically funded porting the game themselves, made a great PC port and released the game on a very low price because they are that cool. :D PC gamers of course liked the fact the Remedy is making this gesture to them and the game sold a lot of copies on PC. So all in all it's an example to follow even though it is very unlikely that Boon & Co. would do the same.
 
Alan Wake is a pretty good example too because Microsoft was saying stuff like, "It's best played from a comfy couch" and not the "intimate" experience on a PC. There where a lot of people against them doing it too because of their bias. I had lost hope that it was ever coming to the PC but then it did and turned out very well and made me glad I waited. I personally bought it and American Nightmare on Good Old Games, DRM free.
 
smoke.tetsu said:
When it comes to fighting games I would say the most superior control is an arcade stick.. I'd go out on a limb and say the most professional players use arcade sticks. That being said it's possible to be a mediocre or bad player with a controller or fight stick and a great player with just a keyboard regardless of what it was initially designed for. It all falls down to your skill... even with a level playing field where everyone uses the same "superior" controls such as the arcade unless of course the arcade operators failed at their duty of maintaining their machines and the controls are busted. Usually though it was never kosher to blame the controls for your lack of skill.

One could use the argument of a keyboard not being designed for games to say it's not even good enough for first person shooters but that's not true. I could say the same sort of anecdotal evidence for a keyboard having more easy to hit keys that one can bind more actions to.

BTW, I used to play the original MK games with a keyboard at one time and I learned different stuff from playing it that way which benefitted me later on going back to using an arcade stick.

So it's true that certain types of controls tend to be better than others for certain types of games. I personally stick to keyboard and mouse for FPS games, gamepads for platformers, fighting sticks for fighting games.. I recognize however that some people make due with "less optimal" controls for certain games and can actually beat players with more optimal controls depending on their relative skill.
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Yeah it comes down to personal preference really. I was always bad at fighting games using a keyboard, I played the first four MK games on a keyboard and it was hard for me to play at a decent level. In Street Fighter 4 I started using a controller and it felt more natural to me and I became a relatively good player in a few months. I considered buying an arcade stick for the game but the price is too high to buy that for only that one modern fighting game I'm playing on PC. If there were some other titles out on PC I'd buy an arcade stick though, however I don't have many problems with my Xbox 360 controller (I mainly use the analog stick instead of the D-Pad though because that's just handles horribly) and I can beat players who use arcade sticks if I can come up with good tactics.
 
Probably the main reason why I continue to use a fight\arcade stick for fighting games is because I'm so used to it. In fact, most 2D 90's games I play better with a stick because I was mainly into arcade games at the time. I got a fighting stick to play MK and and I ended up using it with all of my console games including platformers like Donkey Kong Country. To this day I perform better at those games with a stick than with a gamepad.

On the PC there was a time when I only played every single game FPS/RTS or not with keyboard due to either lack of good alternative controllers, lack of standardized controller ports on PCs (USB wasn't always around) or lack of support for the few peripherals that where available such as games only supporting controllers for one player or not at all. Since keyboard and mouse where the standardized controls for the longest time and FPS/RTS games took better advantage those became the biggest genres on the PC.

I think this really hurt the PCs image when it comes to fighting games, historically speaking. I know quite a few people who have long listed those kind of reasons long after those problems evaporated. Even another common excuse for not wanting to play a fighting game on a PC.. lack of big PC screens is no longer an issue due to bigger computer screens being released and HDTVs that can double as computer screens. There's even computer screens out that look better than most HDTVs.

I did get almost as comfortable playing Mortal Kombat with a keyboard as I was with a fighting stick though because one could hit the keys pretty much the same way that one hits arcade buttons... and with the number pad one could bind the keys in a quincunx configuration like the MK arcade controls. The area I felt it was weakest at was doing rolling motions but MK didn't rely upon those like Street Fighter... also at one time most keyboards had limitations as to how many keys one could hold together and press. Interestingly enough I see alternative fighting stick controls that get rid of the joystick in favor of using nothing but buttons such as the HitBox so some people are used to and even prefer doing those rolling moves with nothing but keys\buttons as opposed to directional pads or joysticks.

The only thing holding back PCs when it comes to fighting games is personal or perhaps gaming culture bias. It seems most of the fighting games I play on my computer these days are via emulation. I still have the same fighting stick that I've been using since the 90's and it works great since I took such good care of it. It was for my SNES so I couldn't use it for a while until I got an adaptor for it... but once I did it was back in action.
 
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Just tweeted a link to this thread to Ed Boon. I know it's a very long shot but maybe he reads some of the posts because overall we've provided some valid reasons that may make them reconsider things.

P.S.: It looks like this topic is the most viewed discussion on these boards by a long mile. It looks like many are interested in a PC verison.
 
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ZaxxerDog said:
Let me quote some parts of your previous post:

If you've meant the MK Arcade Kollection insted of SF4 Arcade Edition that's okay but I can't read your mind. Also MK AK is not a bad port, in some ways it is but the thing is that the game was quite badly put together on all the platform so it's not a PC specific issue at all.
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You quoted the bit of my post and yet misread it again.

Give me an example where that is the case with a game that is running on the Unreal Engine. All I can come up with is Arkham City which was not a stellar port but performed okay.
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It WAS a bad port.

Stats don't really mean a damn thing but here are the stats for SF4 Arcade Edition: there are 3516 recommendations (Arkham City has 896) for it which is quite good (XCOM, a game that is highly successful since that day it was released has 11500 and that is a title where PC is the main platform) and there are 352 players playing right now (Arkham City has 966 players right now but the game's on sale and you can pikc up the GOTY Edition for 5 bucks so that's not too representative). The fact is that the game's doing very good if you take it to consideration that it is mainly a console title and it was relased 1 and a half year ago.
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You serious? Player stats are not important but you use RECOMMENDATIONS to show the popularity of the game? Do me a favor. Search for Killing Floor. Note down the recommendations. Then note the player stats. Notice that KF does not even appear in 10 top games but it has over 86k recommendations.

What does that mean?

Recommendations don't mean shit. The top three games are ALWAYS from Valve, namely Dota 2, TF2, and CS. Do you know why? Because Valve actually cares and the games are excellent. I would not expect MK9 to be near by top 100, just like SF4.

Don't voice your opinion if you're not actually playing these games. You can rebind the keys in every fighting game there is in existence on PC
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Stop right there. Go back and re-read what I've said. I said that controller issue excuse is nothing than laziness, give use the option to configure, and then it's up to the user to actually do good in the game, whether using keyboard or controller.

yes, even in MK4 and in the MK Arcade Kollection) and you simply can't compare it to an FPS, that's just ridiculous.
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Yes, yes I can actually. Since the point is the same.

No matter how you rebind your keys, you'll never be as good as players who use a controller or a fight stick because a keyboard is not fit for controlling a fighting game, period.
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Oh God. Wrong. But even if that's the case, get a PC compatible controller, PROBLEM SOLVED.

A keyboard is designed for typing while a controller is designed for playing games, the buttons are easier to access, also controllers are almost always redesigned when a new console comes out so they are continuosly evolving and getting easier to use with every generation.
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Get a good keyboard, then. Or a controller.

I use mouse + keyboard for almost every game but there are some titles where I use a controller because no matter how skilled you are you'll just never beat people who acutally can play the game and are using more superior controls than you do.
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Personal anecdotes should not be taken as legitimate facts. Not that you even understood my point to begin with, but oh well.


http://shoryuken.com/2012/02/22/warner-bros-no-current-plans-for-mortal-kombat-pc-version-but-we-are-gauging-interest-for-it/
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OK
 
Xenon said:
You quoted the bit of my post and yet misread it again.



It WAS a bad port.



You serious? Player stats are not important but you use RECOMMENDATIONS to show the popularity of the game? Do me a favor. Search for Killing Floor. Note down the recommendations. Then note the player stats. Notice that KF does not even appear in 10 top games but it has over 86k recommendations.

What does that mean?

Recommendations don't mean shit. The top three games are ALWAYS from Valve, namely Dota 2, TF2, and CS. Do you know why? Because Valve actually cares and the games are excellent. I would not expect MK9 to be near by top 100, just like SF4.



Stop right there. Go back and re-read what I've said. I said that controller issue excuse is nothing than laziness, give use the option to configure, and then it's up to the user to actually do good in the game, whether using keyboard or controller.



Yes, yes I can actually. Since the point is the same.



Oh God. Wrong. But even if that's the case, get a PC compatible controller, PROBLEM SOLVED.



Get a good keyboard, then. Or a controller.



Personal anecdotes should not be taken as legitimate facts. Not that you even understood my point to begin with, but oh well.




OK
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Well, no more replies to you, sir. Reasons are the following:

- You criticize me for my comment on recommendations, yet you were the one who used this highly NOT important statistic along with the (again not important) player stats. The number of players playing the game at a given time represents nothing as there are sales and discounts all around the place, also as you've pointed out you get Valve games there all the time (and not only because they are good but because Valve owns the Steam service I might add) and the most common games are from the team based competitive multiplayer genre and those are very cheap or belong to the free to play category. As for Killing Floor, a lot of players play that game and it is highly successful so I don't even understand why you've brought it up and also the game falls to the category I mentioned earlier (it's just not from Valve :D). Another thing should be noted when talking about Steam stats: the game with the highest player number will always be a game that is exclusive to the Steam service (uses Steamworks even in retail or digital downloads that can be purchased only through Steam) and for example all the Street Fighter games are Games for Windows Live titles, which means that those who bought the game in retail, via GFWL or other digital download services will simply not appear in the Steam player stats.

- You say I misread your post twice however you clearly stated the things I commented on. Ignorance or flat out lying is never a good thing.

- You don't provide comments worthy of a good argument ("It WAS a bad port"? That's it, you think using caps lock solves anything? :D)

- Controls: you say I did not "get your point" and you just repeat what I've written in the post you reflected on . :D The part of your reply I commented on was all about how you would like to rebind your keys (or use a controller and a keyboard at the same time? if so, how's that even relevant to a fighting game? that could not be the case then I thought).

- It is clear from your comments that you don't play fighting games these days or you just hate them, don't consider them relevant etc. It's also clear to me that you're biased if it comes to Mortal Kombat or Netherrealm and that results in ignorance, therefore this discussion belongs to the pointless category.

Sorry.
 
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>argues about games and how active they are
>uses anecdotes
>ignores player stats as it does not support your point of the story in any way, shape or form
>tries to pull the recommendation card, fails
>"i'm not going to reply to you anymore!!"
>genius
 
Xenon said:
>argues about games and how active they are
>uses anecdotes
>ignores player stats as it does not support your point of the story in any way, shape or form
>tries to pull the recommendation card, fails
>"i'm not going to reply to you anymore!!"
>genius
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Just like before I don't see any counter-argument here, you're just giving a false interpretation of my opinion based off your bias towards Netherrealm or you're just acting in an arrogant manner. My points on player stats were very valid facts also I did not ignore them in any shape or form, I just said that they are not important as they represent Steam and Steam only. For more on stats and recommendations refer to my previous posts as I've already told you what they mean for some of the fighting games. Last time I checked that didn't mean ignoring them. Here's a fun extra too: 964 players play Super Street Fighter IV at this moment because the game is on sale right now. A few days ago when the game was on full price only 352 players played the game, that really shows how irrelevant the number is in a sale period, it just jumps when there's a sale.

Still not worth a meaningful reply, sorry.

Btw. Arcade Kollection is on sale on Steam until January 5 I think. Great time to pick it up, 5 bucks is a good price for the package.
 
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I'd get it for pc, only if it had good gfx settings to make it ultra hi-res and high def textures. I got a wireless usb adapter so I use the same xbox controllers anyways.

I don't think it's coming tho. The sad part is that it's very easy to port, as xbox is pretty much just a pc with some small directx changes, AND it's on a game engine originally made for pc's (unreal engine). It's too bad since MK II for DOS was so true to the arcade and well done. On floppy disks to boot lol Something like 14Mb if I remember right.
 
the problem with the mk:ak is the fact that on pc you can use mame and kaillera for online. the only thing i would want for the pc is mk9 or get it for the wii u. but getting that into WB's heads is another story
 
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