Why it took NRS so long

[GreatKungLao]

Reading through threads dedicated to the beta test of GGPO-like online announcement I have came across multiple posts arguing about how NRS was so slow about how to properly support their fighting games. Sometimes NRS is even blamed to be worse than other companies in some regards, because those did it earlier and better.

But I would like to look at the picture from other side and try to explain why in my opinion NRS should not be blamed about how slow they evolve regarding competitive play of their fighting games.

Mortal Kombat series never intended to be a competitive fighting game until Mortal Kombat 9. Which means you shouldn't compare NRS/WB experience with FGC with other companies who are in this business for much much longer. Even in one of Ed Boon's interviewes on MK Deception he said that they never intended it to be a tournament level game, it was made for majority, casual gamers, etc. With that being said, NRS only has like 5 years of FGC experience and each time they take it more and more seriously, where MKX is their highest point right now.

Every game of NRS is experiment that they use for polishing of their next projects. They started their path on the right track with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe where they established their combo/juggles system, MKvsDCU already had a meter with two bars for combo breakers or Rage activation. Pro-Moves became EX and Meter Burn special moves in later games. Injustice interactables made their way into MKX in a much better, more balanced and suitable form, etc.

And I must say, that online actually became better from game to game as well. Of course it is not perfect and is worse if compared with other fighting games. But as I said earlier, the serious approach towards fighting game competitive and tournament wise takes its count from 2011 when MK9 was released. We had Player 1 advatage and in later games it was fixed, we've got deeper practice mode since Injustice, invulnerable frames on back dashes.

My point is that NetherRealm Studios is at the very young age as a part of FGC and after more than a decade making Mortal Kombat series for casual players only, they are doing more than a great job at attempting to become serious fighting game developers who strive towards great competitive games, yet remaining loyal towards casual auditory as well without making it too much complicated so that everyone can enjoy their games, not only tournament players.

Making new netkode provided with beta test is just one of those major steps they are doing in the right direction at their young age on competitive scene. Beta and arcade tests was never a part of Mortal Kombat series before and it's better late than never. Maybe in some near future we will be beta testing Mortal Kombat 11 not only online, but balance as well!

Kid should not be blamed for learning from grown ups the way that kid is capable of and NetherRealm Studios still has a road to go by.

Just thought I need to drop my 5 cents out here.

 

[spitefulsnake]

Double helix (former killer Instinct developer) never made a fighting game before their xbox one exclusive was made yet they managed to not only set themselves as a competitive fighter but gives us the best online experience. Nrs had two competitve games to get this right and still managed to mess up the online in mkx. They're far from being a kid at this point.

 

[Agilaz]

Maybe in some near future we will be beta testing Mortal Kombat 11 not only online, but balance as well!

pls no

considering some of the buff threads I see on here, that would be summoning a shitstorm

 

[MrProfDrPepper]

Double helix (former killer Instinct developer) never made a fighting game before their xbox one exclusive was made yet they managed to not only set themselves as a competitive fighter but gives us the best online experience. Nrs had two competitve games to get this right and still managed to mess up the online in mkx. They're far from being a kid at this point.

Will to be fair the game started off with only 4 characters and progressively added more, along with there not really being a story mode until season 2, so that have them more time to balance mechanics, characters, and work on netcode.

 

[B. Shazzy]

Will to be fair the game started off with only 4 characters and progressively added more, along with there not really being a story mode until season 2, so that have them more time to balance mechanics, characters, and work on netcode.

KI was rushed out on release and like two guys worked on KI netcode. There's no excuse.

 

[StealthyMuffin]

Double helix (former killer Instinct developer) never made a fighting game before their xbox one exclusive was made yet they managed to not only set themselves as a competitive fighter but gives us the best online experience. Nrs had two competitve games to get this right and still managed to mess up the online in mkx. They're far from being a kid at this point.

And Skullgirls was Lab Zero's first game, period.

 

[trufenix]

The answer is very simple. MKX is the first game to make enough money for a long enough time that NRS/WB could afford to tear the entire engine apart and rebuild it. That's it.

 

[GreatKungLao]

KI was rushed out on release and like two guys worked on KI netcode. There's no excuse.

I'm pretty sure that prior goals for WB/NRS/whatever is to appeal towards majority (casual) auditory that would be happy with current netkode, because they don't care about combo drops and other complicated stuff we (the minority) complain about. But maybe WB found some pieces of its soul and decided to take care of FGC part of MK fandom and treat online seriously like tournament players need to.

 

[spitefulsnake]

I'm pretty sure that prior goals for WB/NRS/whatever is to appeal towards majority (casual) auditory that would be happy with current netkode, because they don't care about combo drops and other complicated stuff we (the minority) complain about. But maybe WB found some pieces of its soul and decided to take care of FGC part of MK fandom and treat online seriously like tournament players need to.

WB only care about money and the kp2 is money and with sf5 on their heels they had no hope of making bank if they didn't address the netcode. Kindness didn't do this it was business.

 

[MrProfDrPepper]

KI was rushed out on release and like two guys worked on KI netcode. There's no excuse.

Those are 2 talented mother fuckers then

 

[BillStickers]

I think the most logical reason for the delay/initial non-support is because MKX was originally intended to be PS3/Xbox360 cross-released as well, so there may have been memory constraints at play. Remember that there's footage of KI that looks almost as good running on Xbox360 yet that was canned as well -- possibly due to the console constraints of trying to pull off rollback netcode.

 

[GreatKungLao]

WB only care about money and the kp2 is money and with sf5 on their heels they had no hope of making bank if they didn't address the netcode. Kindness didn't do this it was business.

I doubt they would lose anything if they did not took care of MKX's netkode. They could do it with Injustice 2 or MK11 (pre-release beta test).

I mean, they survived cancelation of PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, they would have survived this. And there is slightest possibility they stop supporting PC version, because if they would even in some distant future, there would be no need of not including Steam as a platform in KP2 and GGPO trailers, while including it in all previous videos. If they do it, they will survive still.

 

[LeoMK29]

So many excuses...either way late is better than never. Should have been addressed since the beginning.

 

[BlackJackSnack]

With as much money as NRS has made with the releases of the last three games we should have had acceptable netcode by now, yes.

But I'm just glad it's finally announced and on the way

 

[Dark_Ky]

there is no excuse, stop it apologists

maybe Ed Boon and his team cared but the people who had the last word probably looked at the sales and concluded that they dont have to give a damn. their silence about the netcode before the launch was very telling.

I am very happy to hear about their new approach but this might be a little bit too late.

 

[Alright RyRy]

To be fair, it does help with the netcode when you main sponsor is Microsoft, (Speaking of KI of course) a company that has been handling games on their servers for years. No ports to worry about and when it was initially released with was more or less a demo/ beta.

NRS is fine, people need to stop bashing them. They listen and they are doing what they need to and making sure its a good business move aswell.

 

[GreatKungLao]

I am very happy to hear about their new approach but this might be a little bit too late.

It is too late for MK9 and Injustice, but MKX is not even a year old and with new DLC content on the way, an improved netkode can bring fresh air and blood into the game. If new netkode will go as good as promised, MKX can start a new life.

maybe Ed Boon and his team cared but the people who had the last word probably looked at the sales and concluded that they dont have to give a damn. their silence about the netcode before the launch was very telling.

I can agree here. Warner Brothers as publisher has some really bad issues regarding marketing and care of their products. Like PC version of Batman Arkham Knight or announcement of MKX for PS3 and Xbox 360 with later cancelation using an excuse like "it appeared to be impossible to port MKX on past generation of consoles", it's like they couldn't find it out BEFORE rising hopes of thousands or maybe millions PS3/360 users? Ugh. And WB sucks not only with video games, but that's another story.

 

[B. Shazzy]

To be fair, it does help with the netcode when you main sponsor is Microsoft, (Speaking of KI of course) a company that has been handling games on their servers for years. No ports to worry about and when it was initially released with was more or less a demo/ beta.

NRS is fine, people need to stop bashing them. They listen and they are doing what they need to and making sure its a good business move aswell.

People need to stop making posts retroactively absolving nrs for the past 7 years because we're getting ggpo now. Then those other posts will stop.

 

[RoGE]

Who cares how long it took to implement rollback, all that matters is they are doing it now and probably will continue implementing it from now on.

Future is looking bright for NRS games, thanks for listening to our feedback.

 

[spitefulsnake]

I never said they wouldn't survive but it's save to say thier sales will suffer. Street fighter 5 is the biggest threat to nrs saling the kp2 right now. They had to do something more than just hope casuals buy the dlc for xenomoph and leather face

 

[GreatKungLao]

I never said they wouldn't survive but it's save to say thier sales will suffer. Street fighter 5 is the biggest threat to nrs saling the kp2 right now. They had to do something more than just hope casuals buy the dlc for xenomoph and leather face

I doubt SFV has any chance of winning major part of casual auditory from MKX, it offers less content and less characters on release, no popular guest characters and no Xbox One among platforms. Not to mention that getting KP2 is cheaper than the entire new game. But if player doesn't have MKX, it doesn't cost $60 either anymore.

Though I'm not an expert here. It might be all vice versa for SFV.

 

[buyacushun]

I like to give blame to both WB and NRS when it comes to stuff like netcode and questionable DLC choices.

But there is other stuff that is just wtf and on NRS shoulders. Like whatever weird hit detection they use. Which causes both whiffs and ghost hits.

Using the same system for online makes it feel as if they barely try, if at all to inprove anything. When a streamer creates a lobby, he/she still has to lose a match first before they can AFK.

Shit like quan being quan and the simplicity in power displated by tanya. That's just NRS making NRS decisions.

Being new doesn't forgive basic flaws. NRS has like 3 decades of fighters to look at. Mike Z did a wonderful panel on things fighters overall did right, wrong, stopped and should continue doing.

And as much as I'd like to believe WB is a greedy overlord controlling NRS. I don't know exactly how things work over there. Not that WB is a saint of a publisher.

 

[DelSchokoladenSaft]

It's water under the bridge at this point.
You gotta understand that there are three ways to answer a yes/no question. It is yes, no, and mu.
There are reasons beyond reasons it wasn't done, so let it go.
The important thing here is the attempt at change. Will it work? Idk, I'm not a wizard.

 

[Groove Heaven]

I think both sides are kinda right. Like yeah NRS dragged ass making their online experience good (which still remains to be seen) but at least they put the effort in at all when they didn't really have to to sell KP2. If nothing else, this is a good sign that they're committed to the longevity of MKX.

 

[TotteryManx]

At this point they aren't doing all this work for sales. The game has been out for 9 months or so. I believe they're doing this for the competitive scene, ESL, and testing it out before implementing it in their next game. Someone mentioned that Paulo said they started rebuilding the game with a new netkode a month after release. Lets just be grateful they have finally accepted their online experiences have been unacceptable.

Also, did you know MK cabs use to ship with tournament instructions and brackets? It was meant to be somewhat competitive. Otherwise, why include that?