It's a sad, sad, day in the Mortal Kombat universe. It appears that Ed Boon is leaving Midway after over 20 years, to live out his life long dream of becoming a chef.

Ed made a few updates to noob.com over night. First off there is an new series of numbers that decode to TOUCH, which is interesting in it's own right (but more on that later today). Thanks to the great eyes of TRMK forum member Prophet, he found a hidden message. Hiding away in black text at the bottom of the screen is the following message:

It is with deep regret that after over 20 years with Midway, I will be leaving as of today to pursue my dream of becoming a chef. I will never forget the incredible experience I've had with such an amazing group of talented people

Ed will be greatly missed by the community, as the last remaining co-creator of the series at Midway his influence and direction on the series will be a huge impact.

When we went looking for comments, our sources at Midway told us to us he has signed up for a 5 year television deal to star and produce in his own cooking show entitled Kooking With Boon to air on the CW. Here is a preview shot of the new show.



We wish Ed all the best in his new career! I can't wait to try out some of his recipes. Look out Emeril, you got competition!

April Fools Sorry but unfortunately this wasn't a real product, but to read more about the hard work we put into it check out our post April Fools day recap.

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon updated his personal website, noob.com with a variety of things. But most importantly, the coded message of TOUCH seems to carry a little more weight than everything else on the site. We investigated the TOUCH word with our sources and unearthed a shocking revelation. Midway is working on bringing the Mortal Kombat universe to Apple's iPhone / iPod Touch platform. Apple recently announced plans to allow developers to create their own native applications for the iPhone / iPod Touch and several game companies, including EA and Sega, are developing games for the powerful platform. We asked our sources about the TOUCH message on Boon's website and revealed to us that indeed Midway is also going to capitalize on the booming iPhone install base.

Since the message was already leaked by Boon on his website, our source was able to provide us this exclusive video of a prototype build of Mortal Kombat Touch.

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View video encoded for iPhone/iPod Touch (.mp4)
As you can see, the game uses the iPhone's tilt sensing capability to move your character around the screen. Along the perimeter of the screen are the attack buttons and touching anywhere but in the corners is the block button. While the video clip features the Dead Pool stage and Kitana from Mortal Kombat 2 the opponent is Kabal from MK3/UMK3. This could mean that we could see a version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy being ported over to the iPhone.

While this is quite the revelation, this doesn't have anything to do with the "Mortal Kombat 8", the next-generation re-visioning of the Mortal Kombat franchise. In a few more weeks on April 17 all will be revealed at Midway's Gamers Day in Las Vegas. In the meantime, check out a better screenshot of the game's launch icon on the iPhone's springboard on our temporary Mortal Kombat Touch GameRealm.

Every year or so at TRMK we try to come up with a good April Fools joke, no matter how cool or strange. As previous years, the idea for this year didn't really come the day or two before. This time my idea came to me in the early morning of March 31st, giving me one day to put it together. And I had a lot of work ahead of me...

The idea was to stage a leaked video of a prototype Mortal Kombat game for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform. I figured it's name could be Mortal Kombat: Touch.

But I wanted this to be kind of believable, so I contacted Mortal Kombat series co-creator, Ed Boon, to see if he wanted in on the gag. I asked him if he'd like to play along by adding something to do with 'touch' to his website noob.com for April Fools Day. He was in for the joke, so I went to work the night of March 31st putting together our scheme.

We could have just created a video and timed the tilt movements, but decided to go with something with more realism. Luckily I currently work as iPhone/iPod Touch software developer, so it making something realistic was doable. After burning the midnight oil on the 31st, I developed a prototype using ripped sprite animations found online. The game actually functions on the device as you see in the video. You can move the character forward and back with simple turning of the device. Contrary to what many thought, it was NOT a video playing back on the phone.

Actually, the extent of the game's functionality is featured in the video. If I were to walk off too far to one side, the characters would walk off the stage. I also had a big bug with cloning the character, that I didn't have time to fix. So I had to do the video over a few times if the bug appeared. Here's a few direct screenshot examples:


Nasty Clone Image Bug


WAY too far right

I finished the project just before midnight on April 1st. By then Ed had updated noob.com and added the numbers 20.15.21.03.08 which decode to the word TOUCH.


Ed's Clue (Still There Today??!)

It was perfect for our setup. The idea would be to record it at a quality that looks like someone did a quick video capture of the game, nothing high quality to make it appear staged.

He also added the joke about him leaving Midway, which gave us even more meat to develop the whole "leaked" story. So we let that news fester for a bit first, then at noon we put out the story and the video clips, and the rest is history.

It seemed some people either really loved the idea, were indifferent or completely hated it. Some even called us gullible!

The main goal of this event was to have fun. We used to do one almost every year. Back then we would delete the story after the week was over to make sure that no one would think the story was true if they were reading it in the News Archive. Now we just tag the story with "April Fools" and leave the stories in the archive.

If you are interested, I will be posting more screenshots and videos of the MK Touch "game" later this week over in our "temporary" Mortal Kombat Touch GameRealm.

Less than 72 hours from today, Mortal Kombat fans will finally know where Midway will take the direction of the company's most prized critical and financial jewel. This Thursday in Las Vegas, the destiny of one of the longest and most successful franchises in video game history will be revealed to the public at the first Midway Gamers' Day event of 2008.

'Mortal Kombat 8', the first Mortal Kombat game to grace the Microsoft Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3, will feature an entirely new formula where nothing from the previous seven fighting games is considered sacred. It is already well known that the Mortal Kombat Team is looking to start from scratch and rebuild the franchise upon a completely different foundation. From the art direction to the fighting game-mechanics, the Unreal Engine 3 based fighter promises to be nothing we have ever seen before.

While we prepare to head out to Las Vegas to cover this momentous occasion live to you, we scrounged our sources for any last bit of hints to what Midway will reveal this Thursday. Our sources who revealed to us late last year that the next-gen title will feature another well known intellectual property, have reiterated their stance and have heard even more signs that this is indeed the direction that the series will be taking. Granted, the information is still considered rumor, but industry chatter expects to see the series team up with another established brand in some form or fashion. How much integration can we expect? Insiders are tight-lipped but those who have seen the character models and environments are expecting the public to be amazed, if not blown away.

Will the rumor and speculation end up being true? Or have the spry ninjas within Midway's halls leaked a juicy rumor to throw us off the scent? All will be revealed soon this Thursday as we travel to Las Vegas to witness in person the live reveal and get a chance to sit down and talk with the developers about what was just unleashed upon the public. Keep it here at TRMK throughout the entire day on Thursday for any early developments. But most importantly, set an appointment for 7:00 PM CDT for our live event coverage of the Midway Gamers' Day presentation. Get your imagination ready as we will attempt to take ideas for questions later in the evening during the reveal!

The folks over at Mortal Kombat Online have been given the go ahead to release an image prior to the Midway Gamers' Day embargo of Friday, April 18th 4:00pm PDT (6:00pm CDT). Since we appreciate the collaborative efforts of MKO while out at Midway Gamers' Day, we'll be kind to simply point you to their website to check out the picture.


As of now, there is nothing else that we can reveal right now until the end of the press embargo. The game's official website WorldsCollide.com will one day feature content, but currently features a default setup page. Soon on TRMK you can expect a trailer, several images, and some detailed information on the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game fairly shortly after it expires. Until then, head on over to our new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Forum and discuss the latest revelations with fellow fans.

Look like sites are jumping the gun, so we'll follow suit. Here is the trailer that was revealed at Midway Gamers' Day in Las Vegas last night. Worlds collide when Mortal Kombat wages war with DC Comics Universe in a battle to save all they know.

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Download HD (720p) Versions: Windows Media Video (31MB), QuickTime Video (38MB)
The preview article at GameSpot lets a few details out that the game will not be 'M'-rated but will feature some style of finisher, just not fatalities per se.

Also, the WorldsCollide.com website has been created and shows a newsletter signup and links to Midway's official MK vs DCU forums. (Thanks Austin Meyer) Clicking on Sub-Zero's eye brings up a secret page with 16 question marks, arranged like a character select screen. (Thanks QuanChiKiller)

If you're interested, here is the official Midway Press Release that offers a few extra details including the writers of the storyline and a Fall 2008 release date.

We are working hard to organize our information and get our coverage to you as soon as possible. Until then you can check out more at our Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe GameRealm, where we will be updating new information in addition to right here.

While we head back from Sin City, the dust is finally settling on Midway Gamers' Day 2008. Even as we heard from our sources that this game was going to be a crossover, the mere fact of such a game being created even questioned the validity of our tried and trusted informants. The unfathomable happened and an intriguing chapter in the Mortal Kombat history had begun as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was announced last night / early this morning. With many questions in tow, Patrick interviewed the man with the answers, series co-creator Ed Boon, and got as much as we could within the limited amount of time we had.

TRMK: Beyond those announced today, Scorpion and Sub-Zero. How many/which old characters can we expect to return?
EB: You know, I can’t answer that. Actually, you know what? The way I always answer to people is: The only ones we confirmed are Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Superman and Batman. But, if you were to say: Ok, what are the biggest Mortal Kombat characters? What are the biggest DC characters? I bet that you will get 90% of the cast yourself. You know, so you do the math.

Gameplay changes, the lack of mini-games, the philosophy behind a Nintendo Wii port and as well as several audio clips of the interview and much more await! Go check it out! When you're done, you can head on over to our Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe forum and join fellow MK fans in what is already being considered the hottest topic in Mortal Kombat history.

Midway kicked off their Gamers' Day with a keynote presentation that featured all of the games that were to be displayed at the event. After some great videos and presentations by several other Midway teams, the stage was set for the first ever unveiling of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Creative Director, Ed Boon, took the stage and spoke about the collaborative efforts with DC Comics and the vision and philosophy behind the direction the Mortal Kombat series on next-generation consoles is taking.

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Check out more coverage of Midway Gamers Day, including an in-depth interview with Ed Boon and the full theatrical trailer available in 720p HD in our Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe GameRealm.