Thanks to our eagle eyed "Kanadian" reader, Umon Daisuke, we have discovered that the Mortal Kombat films are coming to Blu-ray finally on March 23rd, 2010. There is bad news though, as it'll be sold in Canada only via the distribution company Alliance which is known for fast Blu-ray releases with no extra features. So while the movie itself may be all you get, it should look far better than the previous DVD release from 1997 when DVD was still a new technology and was inferior quality wise to the superior Laserdisc release.

Don't despair fans, there is good news, as any diehard Mortal Kombat fan in the US can order the movie from Canada and play it here in the US with no problems on their Blu-ray player of choice! Those interested can pre-order your copies today from Amazon's Canadan branch Amazon.ca and have them shipped here for around $27 US Dollars each.

Mortal Kombat Blu-ray @ Amazon.ca

Mortal Kombat Annihilation Blu-ray @ Amazon.ca

We have pre-ordered the first movie and will do a review with an in-depth comparison when it arrives. Also note the image on the right is not the official cover art for the release, we haven't been able to find that yet.

Kotaku is reporting that all the former Midway Games titles like Smash TV and Robotron on Xbox Live Arcade have been pulled down overnight. Included in this is the very popular port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. We're not sure if this is temporary, or if these titles are gone for good just yet. The game still has it's Xbox.com game detail page.

At this point we're not sure if you'd be able to download your purchased games again, which is the case of previous titles when removed for poor performance. Since that reason for removal usually centers on the game not selling well, it that doesn't appear to be the case in this matter. Also some people over at CheapAssGamer noticed that you can still buy the codes for the game on Amazon, but that is not a promise that you will still get the game.

Also of note that the Midway titles, including Mortal Kombat II, are still available on the PlayStation Network. We're not sure if the same thing will happen there or not, but in case if you still haven't bought the game yet now is as good a time as any!

We'll update this as we find out more!

UPDATE 11AM CST

Xbox Live's Major Nelson just posted to Twitter an update about the situation.

FYI: Some XBLA titles are no longer available for purchase from Xbox LIVE Arcade due to publisher evolving rights and permissions...

If you purchased it in the past, you WILL be able to re-download them...so don't worry.

The list of titles is: Cyberball, Defender, Paperboy, Rootbeer Tapper, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Robotron, Joust, Gauntlet & Smash TV

Look for discussion on the games that were removed on my show this week

If you purchased any of those titles...you will still be able to play them or redownload 'em. An no, it's not Game room related

So we'll be sure to tune into his Podcast this week to hear more details.

As we predicted last month, film producer Larry Kasanoff and his company Threshold Entertainment filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mortal Kombat owners Warner Bros. Kasanoff is still claiming to hold legal rights to the Mortal Kombat movie franchise and wants involvement in the development of the rumored third feature film.

This is a brief rundown of the lawsuit thanks to The Wrap

The lawsuit states that Warners has "failed to work with Threshold in the development and production of the third 'Mortal Kombat' film," and has avoided communication with the Connecticut-based company, which has offices in Santa Monica. In late January, reports surfaced that a "Mortal Kombat" reboot by Warners was under way, including the hiring of a new screenwriter.

I have a feeling this case will not be going away anytime soon, stay tuned for future developments.

Fifteen years ago this week, before TRMK existed, I wrote my first video game guide, a not so good FAQ for Mortal Kombat 3. If you want to read more about my history with MK, I wrote a longer post about the past fifteen years over at my personal blog Infinite Shamrock. Here's an excerpt I feel that is relevant to TRMK readers:

When Mortal Kombat 4 began testing around Chicago in 1997, I joined up with friends who ran the website The Realm of Mortal Kombat. I’ve been working on covering all Mortal Kombat games for TRMK ever since. We are the longest running Mortal Kombat website still in existence. We to this day are still trying to continue to help fans in the “Kommunity” as well as we can. It’s not easy to do right along side a real job, but I will continue to do this as long as I believe I’m contributing in some form or another. We’re currently anticipating the release of Mortal Kombat 9 which is rumored to be coming sometime around Christmas 2010.

....

Through out the past 15 years I have also met and become friends with many great people. Everyone from the developers behind the games, members of the professional and amateur gaming press and of course all the other legions of game fans out there. Many of which provided great inspiration to me, and have been great friends over the years. I would make a list of these people who have helped over the years, but then I’m likely to forget someone. So I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey over the years, as without you I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. I really appreciate everything.

I decided to celebrate this day by doing a small giveaway. I have assembled an awesome Mortal Kombat prize package to give away to three lucky MK fans.

Each MK Package contains:
- Mortal Kombat Kollection for PlayStation 2 (THREE MK GAMES!)
- TWO! MK games for two random systems (Xbox, Nintendo DS, PC, SNES or Gameboy)
- Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe T-Shirt
- Two Mortal Kombat Armageddon Wii Posters
- Misc Mortal Kombat Kollectable swag
- Various Midway Games memorabilia
- Additional surprises are possible, I may reveal them as time goes on.
Some Pictures Available Here


To enter the kontest, we've decided to harness the power of the social web. You have three ways to enter for a chance to win.

TRMK Forums Kontest:
- Register for an account in our forums.
- Leave a comment to this news story thread by the end of the day February 26th will be entered.

Twitter Kontest:
- First you must follow @TRMK on Twitter, so we can contact you.
- Once you follow us, then then you just have to post a Tweet that mentions @TRMK by end of the day, February 26th will be entered.

Facebook Kontest:
- First you have to join our Facebook Fan Page.
- Then post a reply to this discussion thread on our Facebook Fan page before the end of the day, February 26th will be entered into the Kontest.

Contest Rules:
- Contest is only open to those who live in North America due to the games being playable here only. Sorry!
- Only one entry per person per kontest, all additional entries will be filtered out.
- You can also only win one kontest, if your name is drawn for more than one we'll draw again.
- Contest IS open to our Forum Moderators, as they are unpaid staff members.

Again as I said in my blog post, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey over the years, as without you I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. I really appreciate everything, and I hope to continue to serve you the MK Fans for as long as I can!