Jack Burton
Noob
Mortal Kombat X is on the horizon and anticipation for the game is keeping fans on the edge of their seats. Excitement for the game is only growing thanks to the strong marketing efforts of NetherRealm Studios. It’s their strong suit. Mortal Kombat fans eagerly await Ed Boon’s tweets to gather clues to new reveals. Youtube Mortal Kombat X reveal trailers getting millions of views. NRS can build hype for an upcoming release that other companies who make fighting games can’t compete with.
Even though their marketing in general is strong, they are some areas in need of improvement.
First of all, the timing of the major patches needs to coincide with the timing of EVO. EVO is the largest FGC event with Twitch viewers, fighting game enthusiasts and the general gaming public. It’s a huge marketing event for fighting games, especially games with recent releases. The way a game looks, whether boring or exciting, can determine how long a game can survive in the competitive scene and how long people play the game on Twitch or other stream avenues, all of which keep the excitement of the game going. It is good marketing for NRS and the MK brand that can impact sales (and can inspire upgrades to the game that can be an additional revenue stream for NRS).
With MK9 and Injustice, the games didn’t look as good at EVO compared to when those games received their last patches, usually around October, long after EVO has passed. For example, Injustice lost a lot of players at it’s first EVO with the dominance of Superman and Black Adam and system issues that turned off a lot of players and viewers alike. Many called the game boring as characters often sat at opposite sides of the screen shooting lazers at each other and action moved at a crawl. Injustice’s last patch made the game a lot better. But it came too little too late and players had already made up their mind about the game and many left the Injustice scene.
If Injustice’s and MK9’s last patch, their best patch, came before EVO, those games would have the potential to keep players while building interest from the FGC and viewers. EVO is a huge marketing opportunity and I’m surprised that NRS with it’s strong marketing background would still release their best patch after the world’s largest fighting game event rather than before.
It doesn’t make sense to have a game at EVO if it isn’t going to look good.
Perhaps a good idea would be to do beta tests of the games balance before the game’s release. Especially after the previews for MKX’s new variation mechanic, testing the balance, glitches and such for the game, already looks to be a nightmare. Why not have thousands of people testing it during a beta phase of the game and get valuable info and fix potential glitches and such before the game’s release? Better to have that many people finding exploits, infinities and glitches in the game than just a few quality assurance employees and tournament players on the payroll testing the game.
Another issue is the use of the term “patch” to describe updates to the game. The word “patch” has a negative connotation in regards to consumer products in general. They bring to mind something broken that needs fixing. For example, no one wants to buy a suit that needs to be “patched” and walk out of the store with their suit all “patched” up. The term sounds jankey and people don’t like wearing or playing janky stuff. Revision sounds better. The term brings to mind another take at what they created or a new look on something. NRS should go back and call them revisions like they used to when they were Midway and released “revisions” for all their Mortal Kombat arcade games. Choosing terms carefully is part of good marketing.
If NRS goes back to calling their upgrades “revisions” instead of patches and timing their revisions to make the game look as good at EVO and take advantage of the that marketing opportunity then the game could have a chance of maintaining players and growing the NRS scene (and maybe give Street Fighter a run for it’s money).
Even though their marketing in general is strong, they are some areas in need of improvement.
First of all, the timing of the major patches needs to coincide with the timing of EVO. EVO is the largest FGC event with Twitch viewers, fighting game enthusiasts and the general gaming public. It’s a huge marketing event for fighting games, especially games with recent releases. The way a game looks, whether boring or exciting, can determine how long a game can survive in the competitive scene and how long people play the game on Twitch or other stream avenues, all of which keep the excitement of the game going. It is good marketing for NRS and the MK brand that can impact sales (and can inspire upgrades to the game that can be an additional revenue stream for NRS).
With MK9 and Injustice, the games didn’t look as good at EVO compared to when those games received their last patches, usually around October, long after EVO has passed. For example, Injustice lost a lot of players at it’s first EVO with the dominance of Superman and Black Adam and system issues that turned off a lot of players and viewers alike. Many called the game boring as characters often sat at opposite sides of the screen shooting lazers at each other and action moved at a crawl. Injustice’s last patch made the game a lot better. But it came too little too late and players had already made up their mind about the game and many left the Injustice scene.
If Injustice’s and MK9’s last patch, their best patch, came before EVO, those games would have the potential to keep players while building interest from the FGC and viewers. EVO is a huge marketing opportunity and I’m surprised that NRS with it’s strong marketing background would still release their best patch after the world’s largest fighting game event rather than before.
It doesn’t make sense to have a game at EVO if it isn’t going to look good.
Perhaps a good idea would be to do beta tests of the games balance before the game’s release. Especially after the previews for MKX’s new variation mechanic, testing the balance, glitches and such for the game, already looks to be a nightmare. Why not have thousands of people testing it during a beta phase of the game and get valuable info and fix potential glitches and such before the game’s release? Better to have that many people finding exploits, infinities and glitches in the game than just a few quality assurance employees and tournament players on the payroll testing the game.
Another issue is the use of the term “patch” to describe updates to the game. The word “patch” has a negative connotation in regards to consumer products in general. They bring to mind something broken that needs fixing. For example, no one wants to buy a suit that needs to be “patched” and walk out of the store with their suit all “patched” up. The term sounds jankey and people don’t like wearing or playing janky stuff. Revision sounds better. The term brings to mind another take at what they created or a new look on something. NRS should go back and call them revisions like they used to when they were Midway and released “revisions” for all their Mortal Kombat arcade games. Choosing terms carefully is part of good marketing.
If NRS goes back to calling their upgrades “revisions” instead of patches and timing their revisions to make the game look as good at EVO and take advantage of the that marketing opportunity then the game could have a chance of maintaining players and growing the NRS scene (and maybe give Street Fighter a run for it’s money).
