I am the last person to defend triple A studios, but I can't help but roll my eyes at people acting super indignant about this kind of thing in 2020. It is WELL known that the GOTY/Final/Collected/Whatever edition will always be a significant value compared to buying at launch and getting all the DLC/packs. It happened with MK9, MKX, Injustice 2, and so on. How are you acting surprised that it happened again?
If the difference in price really meant this much to you, you would have waited for it instead of getting angry online now.
I guess what really bothers me is when people start saying the GOTY edition or whatever has "devauled" their launch copy. Part of the value of buying at launch is being able to play the game for an entire year+ sooner than the people paying less. Other people getting a better deal on the content EVENTUALLY doesn't invalidate that you have been enjoying it for months already.
Exactly, and I can also offer perspective from the other side of it and how I've felt from being a late-in-the-day "GOTY Edition" purchaser on MKX. So although I'd been a fan of MK since the very beginning; owned all the spin-offs, the movie soundtracks, watched the TV show, had the official ring, bought a Dreamcast just for MKGold etc. etc. but had a big MK dark age following Armageddon (I'd really enjoyed Deception, especially its Konquest mode, but felt this was a real step down in quality) as I never owned any new system except the Wii from 2006 onwards (in fact as I've posted here before, never played MK9 until this Christmas past when it was on the Steam sale after I bought my first new PC in 12 years).
Then I had my son in 2010, then my wife and I split, then I was balancing being a dad and being single, games never came back into my life at all, until my son was around 4 and was teaching him things like Kirby on the old Wii. For Christmas after he was 6 he really wanted a PS4, so got him one after I looked at the options for a youngster like him and found there were a fair few fun games that were suitable for him to enjoy... then I ended up looking at all the things I'd missed out on too. Bought MKX in the PSN store sale for like, I dunno £10? It was pretty good fun and couldn't be bothered with its Krypt, so bought the "unlock the Krypt" add-on for I think £7.00. So I had MKX now with pretty much everything except a few skins that could only be unlocked through other weird means.
And because of that I've NEVER connected much with the game at all. I never explored it, never learned to understand the living towers, I'd thought the story was ok, but never completed it until really recently (literally last month). The fatalities were good fun after a rubbish day at work but that's about all I did with it. Without having to work and wait for anything, just having it all there, all at once, and having never "invested" in the game (be it financially or emotionally), I've never felt that proper connection with it. I feel like I just bought a lot of things that I then had no desire to continue playing for. I dunno, it's like playing a management game with the "unlimited resources" cheat on or something, what's the fun if there's no wait, work or reward? In browsing the PSN store, all the individual add-ons are still there available for purchase; the Predator skins pack, the Soviet pack, the Tanya character pack etc. and I'm disappointed I never played the game from its first release to have actually enjoyed all of those things being teased to me, waiting, unlocking (or indeed buying) and experiencing the growth of the game.
Yes MK11 has a LOT of really hideous character skins which are needless multiplied with even more hideous colour choices for them (each skin itself only really has one, maybe two colours choices that ever look "right" IMO, like as if you can tell what was the default version of the skin, then just used a nasty algorithm to recolour it in gaudy alternative options accordingly - e.g. Sonya's bright green aerobics skin Maximum Efficiency, prior to the release of the MK3 skin, was the only version I wanted of that design), and yes whilst it's a grind being randomly rewarded the ugly ones whilst you pursue the specifics you're after, I have however enjoyed my time unlocking them. I've enjoyed getting the new KP skins, I've enjoyed the bonus skins the KP has offered, I've enjoyed receiving my new characters a week early, I've enjoyed building my versions of characters over the last year to have a roster looking how I love them. I've enjoyed making my own Mortal Kombat 11 full of outfits and named variations that are 100% unique to my system, my personality and my style of play.
I know I'd ever have loved this game as much as I do (and would never have played it for so long) had I sat around waiting for the day when MK11: Komplete Edition is reduced to £9.99 and would just everything unlocked all ready for me at the point of purchase. I missed out on that on MKX and never connected with it because of that; I'm far far happier being along for the ride for MK11. And I've had a really rotten 18 months since the end of 2018, MK11's been like my old childhood friend (literally, I've been an MK fan since I was 10) who rang up to say "hey man, are you ok? Heard things were shit, I'm there for you!" and has allowed me to put a lot of stuff to the back of my mind whilst slicing heads off in the pursuit of a military beret for Sonya or that one perfect wooden bo staff for Jade to complete my character.
Does it mean I'm 100% happy with the cost of these things? Not necessarily, but I've paid it and that's my choice, this game's given me more joy than any other MK game in my life (and you have no idea how excited I was the day my dad brought home MK2 on the SNES for me in 1994!) and I'm looking forward to having more to enjoy. It's everyone's choice to wait and have it all given to them for one low price way down the line, but I'd have missed out on a lot of joy if I had, and from my MKX experience, I know that for a fact.
I guess what I'm saying is, I feel like I paid for sex with MKX and just felt empty afterwards. With MK11 I've built up a longterm loving relationship... I just have to occasionally pay for a nice meal out once in a while to keep the relationship going, and you know what, I'm fine with that