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MK9 Side Tournament GF Viewership trounces all other FG's (And how MKX COULD be the biggest FG ever)

G4S Claude VonStroke

@MK_ClaudeVS on twitter
As most of you know we held a MK9 side tournament at EVO last minute because EVO felt like it wasn't worth a fourth year. @AK Pig Of The Hut of the hut and myself quickly did our best, put together a side tournament with a 2800$ pot and 80 entrants. The entire event was streamed and seemed to go well. We also did our best to make the community happy by running 3/5 with 4/7 GF and streaming every pool. This was in a way, us giving back to the game and community which really brought us all together and brought us so many great moments and hype.
And the people who donated to the pot bonus seemed to feel the same way. (Thank you so much, again!)

Looking at the IGN Evo grand finals here are the numbers of viewers..

1. Mortal Kombat 9 250k
2. Street Fighter 150k
3. Smash bros 110k
4. Injustice 100k
5. Marvel 90k
6. Killer instinct 90k
7. KOF 80k
8. BlazBlue 55k
9. Tekken 70k
10. Skull girls 50k

We already know that Mortal Kombat out sells every other fighting game and it seems that even after 4 years there is high interest in watching MK tournament play. Much higher than any other fighting game. With MKX coming out we have the potential as a community to really make this the biggest FG ever.

Personally I hope that NRS can incorporate the offline scene in MKX. Maybe in there "messages of the day" or something they could promote offline events, at least the big ones. I think the main problem is most people who bought the game don't even know this community exists. Imagine if we could pull in a small percentage of those people for MKX. A small percentage of lets say 5 million would make MKX the biggest FG ever. Personally I would LOVE to see this! @colt
 

Mst

Noob
Would be good to know if the Videos on the IGN site are just feeds from youtube or not.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
Just to clarify, this is the number of Youtube archive views -- not the number of viewers for the actual tournaments. Just wanted to make sure no one is confused by the wording.

But it's super cool to see that people are searching for the tournament footage after the fact.
 

G4S Claude VonStroke

@MK_ClaudeVS on twitter
Just to clarify, this is the number of Youtube archive views -- not the number of viewers for the actual tournaments. Just wanted to make sure no one is confused by the wording.
Yes, views by casuals. Probably people not watching Evo because most of them don't even know what it is. A huge amount of people to attract for offline scene for mkx IMO
 

Mst

Noob
Yes, views by casuals. Probably people not watching Evo because most of them don't even know what it is. A huge amount of people to attract for offline scene for mkx IMO
A healthy online scene which keeps ppl interested in the game for a long time would be good. So ppl can transition from casual players to a more competitive/tournament oriented player even without a local scene.
 

KC H0oKsw0rds

iK A B A L
Also the fact that this stuff got uploaded to YouTube makes a big difference. Not everybody knows twitch or has a twitch account, but everyone knows YouTube. Just putting in that extra effort will help get more streamed matches out there for the world to see and will make more people like me go from a nobody to a casual player to an advanced player.
 

Mst

Noob
OP gives me an idea...

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but is there any reason NRS couldn't advertise TYM in some way within MKX?
You know, like a little message now and then when you pop online.
I dont think they would do that because that would favor a specific community site. But they could still put up links and schedules for tournaments. Would kinda like if that would do something like the Capcom Cup with online qualifiers (if the netcode is good enough) especially with the entire Mortal Kombat Tournament background i think that would be great. But will most likely not happen because of WB.
 
As most of you know we held a MK9 side tournament at EVO last minute because EVO felt like it wasn't worth a fourth year. @AK Pig Of The Hut of the hut and myself quickly did our best, put together a side tournament with a 2800$ pot and 80 entrants. The entire event was streamed and seemed to go well. We also did our best to make the community happy by running 3/5 with 4/7 GF and streaming every pool. This was in a way, us giving back to the game and community which really brought us all together and brought us so many great moments and hype.
And the people who donated to the pot bonus seemed to feel the same way. (Thank you so much, again!)

Looking at the IGN Evo grand finals here are the numbers of viewers..

1. Mortal Kombat 9 250k
2. Street Fighter 150k
3. Smash bros 110k
4. Injustice 100k
5. Marvel 90k
6. Killer instinct 90k
7. KOF 80k
8. BlazBlue 55k
9. Tekken 70k
10. Skull girls 50k

We already know that Mortal Kombat out sells every other fighting game and it seems that even after 4 years there is high interest in watching MK tournament play. Much higher than any other fighting game. With MKX coming out we have the potential as a community to really make this the biggest FG ever.

Personally I hope that NRS can incorporate the offline scene in MKX. Maybe in there "messages of the day" or something they could promote offline events, at least the big ones. I think the main problem is most people who bought the game don't even know this community exists. Imagine if we could pull in a small percentage of those people for MKX. A small percentage of lets say 5 million would make MKX the biggest FG ever. Personally I would LOVE to see this! @colt
if mkx should be huge in the fgc, nrs need to step up their support. its already good, but stopping to balance after 6 months wont work. NRS has really good ideas for FGs, but after that BALANCE IS EVERYTHING (aside from not being "broken" by things like input bug and p1 advantage). if you have 30 even fighters, the options of what can happen are almost endless, if you have 5 or 6 which dominate things will get old quicker.
also, maybe they need to rethink their DLC/version update philosophy. Street fighter IV has been updating and balancing for years and people dont get tired of it. there are always new tweaks, fighters and mechanics upgrades and that is the support philosophy thats needed to keep a game like MKX on top of the FGC for years. Multiple additional characters could also be added in annual revisions. content could be constantly updated like in an MMO. And there needs to be a dedicated balancing team or maybe just one person whose job is solely to test, stay in contact with the FGC and do balance tweaks. for years, or as long as the game lives or there are issues. im sure WB can afford it, and MKX constantly being present in the FGC will repay in more popularity (and sales) than any advertising campaign. not just by the pros buying it, but by the people in the area around them, by the 250 000 who watch evo, and also their friends who see them playing MK. popularity is everything for sales, and you gain it not just by flashy advertisement, but maybe even more by delivering the expected quality to the hardcore fanbase on a constant base, which will thankfully give the game exposure on big and small stages and keep it popular and present as long as it exists and even beyond that. "Mortal Kombat has always been - and always will be", NRS and WB its up to you how big it will be. Your games are good, now support is everything, the ridiculously huge MK fanbase has the power and the will to repay your efforts multiple times.
in a further step, investing into the tournament scene and helping it to grow might also be a huge step into the right direction. they already do it, but also might go beyond ot bonuses. online and offline tournament organisation is what im talkin about.
 
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if mkx should be huge in the fgc, nrs need to step up their support. its already good, but stopping to balance after 6 months wont work. NRS has really good ideas for FGs, but after that BALANCE IS EVERYTHING (aside from not being "broken" by things like input bug and p1 advantage). if you have 30 even fighters, the options of what can happen are almost endless, if you have 5 or 6 which dominate things will get old quicker.
also, maybe they need to rethink their DLC/version update philosophy. Street fighter IV has been updating and balancing for years and people dont get tired of it. there are always new tweaks, fighters and mechanics upgrades and that is the support philosophy thats needed to keep a game like MKX on top of the FGC for years. Multiple additional characters could also be added in annual revisions. content could be constantly updated like in an MMO. And there needs to be a dedicated balancing team or maybe just one person whose job is solely to test, stay in contact with the FGC and do balance tweaks. for years, or as long as the game lives or there are issues. im sure WB can afford it, and MKX constantly being present in the FGC will repay in more popularity (and sales) than any advertising campaign. not just by the pros buying it, but by the people in the area around them, by the 250 000 who watch evo, and also their friends who see them playing MK. popularity is everything for sales, and you gain it not just by flashy advertisement, but maybe even more by delivering the expected quality to the hardcore fanbase on a constant base, which will thankfully give the game exposure on big and small stages and keep it popular and present as long as it exists and even beyond that. "Mortal Kombat has always been - and always will be", NRS and WB its up to you how big it will be. Your games are good, now support is everything, the ridiculously huge MK fanbase has the power and the will to repay your efforts multiple times.
in a further step, investing into the tournament scene and helping it to grow might also be a huge step into the right direction. they already do it, but also might go beyond ot bonuses. online and offline tournament organisation is what im talkin about.
I totally agree with you! I've been saying (to myself) for ages that NRS need to take on Capcom's update model. It would work even better for NRS as well, because where as SF re-releases have a hard time appealing to casuals (after Super), MKX would do fine because it can add more fatalities, other -alities and additional story.

Surely this would make them more money than releasing a brand new game every 2 years, as well.

Also, the first revision could be called MKXR. It's perfect!