Is This The Start Of NRS Losing Control Of MK?

[JBeezYBabY]

Apparently, there are a lot of people upset about the DLC. And its not the DLC characters in itself because they look RIGHTEOUS! However, the release dates for each is the worrisome part. And its bigger issue than you think.

This whole rollout of the game has been messy from practically everything up to this point of information getting leaked, the backlash of the horribly difficult Towers of Time, to the grind of this game getting skins, etc. It's been numerous headaches about this game, but is it really all NRS' fault?

Remember when Boon said this ?Question mark?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1156626012286771200

"This isn't our choice." That gave me a feeling that Boon hasn't had control over when content should be released for this game at all. Maybe it had something to do with the crunch allegations, or maybe it really is WB pulling the strings. I'm not sure. But major figures in the community think the same thing. Yeah, I know reaction videos aren't ideal, but it's important to note their thoughts behind it. And since these people are big known names, their audience listens.

Exhibit A skip to 1:10

Exhibit B skip to 7:25

It feels like NRS is losing control over their franchise and we're seeing it with our own eyes. I don't think Boon is happy. I mean, he's happy with the sales of this game of course, but how this whole thing has been handled, nobody would be satisfied how messy MK11 has been. At this point, I really question the future of the MK franchise.

Usually I like to provide ideas on what can be done to solve issues of threads I create but this is beyond me. I don't even know what to think as to coming with a solution. So I'm turning it to y'all. What do you think Boon/NRS can do to regain full control over their games again, or does he have to start over again with a new IP?

Let's start a discussion.

 

[xenogorgeous]

yep, it's a fucking mess, but, I will relieve some pain to NRS this time .... they are just a lap dog here, that roll and play dead when its owner (WB) whistles and throw a bone .... so, it's WB that is putting chains and holding up them to be free creative and promote in a better way the game ....

in real world, is this : who has the money, dictates the orders , always was this, always will be, hehe

this way, only when you are totally independent , but with resources, that you can fullfill things the way you dreamt of , hehe

 

[Vslayer]

I think they're definitely at the mercy of WB and it shows. I really don't mind the guests, I'm so happy we get Arnold. What I do mind, is that it seems WB is driving a wedge between us, the fans, and NRS as a company.

Characters are releasing near their movies (except Joker), but that's because he's not ready and it was supposed to be Ash. But Spawn and Terminator are coming out around the same time, tho dates for the release of the Spawn movie is just speculation at this point, it's pretty obvious it'll be ready by the middle of next year when Spawn is going to be released as DLC.

WB is gonna make deals, deals that affect MK and in turn, that affect us and as Ed Boon said, he can't do anything about it. I would sever ties with WB, but I'm not sure how well that would work out for NRS.

 

[stokedAF]

I blame the millennials rising in ranks.

 

[xenogorgeous]

I don't even know what to think as to coming with a solution.

One good solution, perhaps, would be NRS , WB or both, listen more the community .... see Resident Evil from Capcom ? I love to death Resident Evil, is my favourite franchise along with MK, however, I don't protect and play light when developers do things that are explicit results of bad calls, bad decisions ... they fucked up the series with that so-so RE5, and that fucking shit RE6 games, and those dubious Revelations games .... and don't make me say about Operation Raccon Site , and that trash horrible stuff garbage piece of shit called Umbrella Corps .... and the series was coming to a hypotetical limbo phase .... only after Capcom, for some miracle reason, resolved to bring a public question pool, asking for the RE community around the world, to give feedback about a lot of points about RE, and giving space for global feedback, it was when they did something better, as RE7 and the Resident Evil 2 remake, both selling pretty well, but, more important, overall having good analysis from a lot of game sites, and RE forums around the internet .... so, they tried to improve the quality of games, when they decided to listen , for real, some suggestions and feedback ideias from the fanbase

so, MK could have something similar to this , who knows ?

 

[Wam-Zlay]

Even WB won't be able to destroy the mk franchise.

Long live the MK dynasty

 

[Hacenit]

It's not a start, it's been going on for a while now. I doubt it was NRS that had the bright idea to put in the always online stuff, lootboxes in IJ2, preorder to get Goro in MKX and other things. I doubt they have much say in DLC characters, considering that Spawn wasn't just asked by the community but also acknowledged by Boon for years now. There was the whole character design story in IJ2, which made it really easy to see who gets the final say of what goes into the game.
I just think that ever since IGAU WB pushed more and more with each consecutive game. Control? Not since WB got them.

 

[DixieFlatline78]

I waited patiently for Duke Nukem Forever, I can wait for DLC news. It's not that bad. Bi-monthly character releases are pretty typical and we learned most of the KP roster about two months after release. People who are bitching about them being incompetent for not releasing gameplay trailers immediately sound kinda spoiled tbh

I do think Spawn should be released earlier since he was announced with the Shang Tsung trailer and a lot of people bought the season pass with that announcement, but the timing for everything does make sense in a way

Game's good, netcode's good, balance patch breathed new life into underplayed characters, Shang was dope, Nightwolf was also pretty cool, I'm very satisfied with this game all around and if I'm not feeling it I can just go do something else

 

[santanabar]

It's hard to have it both ways.
You want amazing graphics? cary tagawa and arnold? incredible launch trailers?
Well, all that shit costs money which only a big studio can provide. And they expect that their investment pays off.

 

[NaughtySenpai]

They should just focus on doing a game for 3 or 4 years without dumping out any other trash in the meantime and release a fully thought out game.
The single player grind in this game is complete trash and buggy as hell. The fucking game is out for over 3 month and nobody has yet unlocked all concept art because you can't, cuz the Krypt is trash and dumb to smoke.

The konsumables and modifiers in towers are as fun as repeatedly smashing a brick on your testicles.

Add the last minute variations into it and the poorly thought out balance patch where they buff/nerf one variation and leave the already useless one untouched, the shitty hitbox and whiffing issues, the trash online vs. WIFI and the untypically slow DLC release and you've got one weird package of ass.

Don't get me wrong I fucking love the core gameplay to death, I just wish single player wasn't a life achievement in enduring ass and the characters would feel more complete by making a lot of abilities baseline and actually thinking about how the fuck you compose the variations so that they actually make sense and are useful.

2 years for a game like this is just not enough time to produce a satisfying package even if you work your employees to death.

MK just is in the unfortunate position that the competitive players expect a well-made fighting games and the casual fans expect a well-made video game. Getting both right takes time.

 

[Sutter Pain]

Gripes with the fan base don’t really mean shit to wb when mk11 is the highest selling game of 2019 unless I am wrong about that.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

I don't know if many realize this but Midway was bought out by WB back in 2009 before MK9. So literally every one of those games where supported by WB MK9, IGAU, MKX, I2 and now MK11.

Personally I think the DLC being spread out isn't WB or NRS(a sub division of WB) I think its the allegations of "Crunch Hours" and deadlines making an unhealthy work environment for the employees. Their hands may be forced to change release of characters from every month to every 1-2 months.

What I hope is that we will get 4-5 years if support on MK11 from both WB/NRS.

 

[jmt]

A 7 month fucking wait for a dlc character is a fucking sad pathetic joke.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Uh, no. I know you're relatively new here, but not much has changed. NRS has always been connected through WB to guest characters and licensing deals depend on the publisher (and always have, for years), not just the dev house.

NRS is not 'losing control' of anything.. This is just how things work in business. And it seems like the people who've played every NRS game the least are fond of attacking them the most over every little thing.

 

[craftycheese]

Gripes with the fan base don’t really mean shit to wb when mk11 is the highest selling game of 2019 unless I am wrong about that.

Even though you're right, it should. Even though this one sold a lot, if the game is bad or if they keep on making mistakes or bad decisions after launch it could greatly affect the sales of the next game.

 

[Samsara]

Uh, no. I know you're relatively new here, but not much has changed.

I've been here about 5 years or so now and I've always seen Jbeezy around. I'd consider him a veteran poster. Not sure why you'd make a comment like that, has nothing to do with his argument.

I think the mk11 roll out was messy and even NRS admits it's not their choice. That implies a lack of autonomy. If anything, mk11 is unprecedented given their recent output and could signal a larger change. He doesnt seem too off base.

Most people understand that big corpos like WB can push their studios around however they want. I know NRS wouldn't be where they are without WB, I just cant help but think NRS really didnt want MK11 to be managed this poorly.

With all the features they wanted for 11, anyone with a brain knows the 2 year cycle ain't enough for that. Imagine what another year could have done for the game. You think NRS actually wants to flip a game every other year? That's WB.

Ed's recent interviews have got me thinking a lot. When he talks about potentially branching out and taking NRS in a new direction, I get the feeling that he wishes he could do more but doesnt think their own success or even WB would let them.

Idk. Hand waving 11 as business as usual is dismissive .

 

[Arqwart]

A 7 month fucking wait for a dlc character is a fucking sad pathetic joke.

Waiting 7-9 weeks between each character release for a fully completed character with a scanned model's face, full model rigging and animations, full voice acting with in-fight / win / intro dialogues, defined base kit, 6-8 variation moves, two tournament variations, krushing blows, fatal blow, a full set of fatalities and brutalities, win poses, round win poses / walks, character select animations, a full suite of costumes + color schemes and gear for 3 slots, and all the frame data / damage and balancing of it for the movesets seems pretty logical a time window to wait.

I agree that it sucks that Spawn is the last in line. He's second only to Sindel for my most anticipated character for the pack. However, let's not act like there isnt a fuckton of work that goes into each individual character, especially if NRS is reformatting their workflow style to avoid oppressive crunch.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

I've been here about 5 years or so now and I've always seen Jbeezy around. I'd consider him a veteran poster.

Registered: September 7, 2017

Are you sure you’re talking about the same person? That's less than two years. That is most definitely relatively new when a bunch of us have been here since 2011 or 2012 (some even longer). So the context of what's gone down since the first NRS title matters.

 

[xenogorgeous]

I don't know if many realize this but Midway was bought out by WB back in 2009 before MK9. So literally every one of those games where supported by WB MK9, IGAU, MKX, I2 and now MK11.

Personally I think the DLC being spread out isn't WB or NRS(a sub division of WB) I think its the allegations of "Crunch Hours" and deadlines making an unhealthy work environment for the employees. Their hands may be forced to change release of characters from every month to every 1-2 months.

What I hope is that we will get 4-5 years if support on MK11 from both WB/NRS.

very fair point

Uh, no. I know you're relatively new here, but not much has changed. NRS has always been connected through WB to guest characters and licensing deals depend on the publisher (and always have, for years), not just the dev house.

NRS is not 'losing control' of anything.. This is just how things work in business. And it seems like the people who've played every NRS game the least are fond of attacking them the most over every little thing.

yep, sometimes we act like a rowdy dog, barking loud and putting flame on everything .... we are passionate and care about MK, so, we criticize in order to see NRS and WB trying to listen, to do what we fanbase, think it's better .... but yeah, we don't have the criative control and we have not power to influence their final decisions .... so, we cry out and complain all the time, hehe .... it's a love / hate relationship with the companies behind MK franchise series, hehe

 

[Samsara]

Registered: September 7, 2017

Are you sure you’re talking about the same person? That's less than two years. That is most definitely relatively new when a lot of us have been here since 2011 or 2012 (some even longer). So the context of what's gone down since the first NRS title matters.

Bro he's active af, if we're gonna start looking up dates everytime someone makes a comment and framing their statements in that context alone than its gonna come off as a bunch of old heads telling "relatively new" posters that they just dont get it.

"I think we should look a past MK games for context" is better than effectively saying "you're new here so it makes sense that you dont get it"

Critique the argument. This shit is a slippery slope. White knighting is complete, lol.

 

[Sutter Pain]

Even though you're right, it should. Even though this one sold a lot, if the game is bad or if they keep on making mistakes or bad decisions after launch it could greatly affect the sales of the next game.

I wish that were the case but the sad thing is our 4% of the sales and gameplay mechanics and gripes don’t mean shit to their bottom line.

If the game has scorpion and you can do fatalities on your homies coupled with the gameplay being the easiest out of any fighting game. The game gonna fucking sell loads as have been proven time and time again

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Bro he's active af, if we're gonna start looking up dates everytime someone makes a comment and framing their statements in that context alone than its gonna come off as a bunch of old heads telling "relatively new" posters that they just dont get it.

Critique the argument. This shit is a slippery slope.

I didn't say he was inactive. I said he is relatively new. And that he has spent most of his less-than-two-year tenure complaining, dropping NRS games after a few months and attacking the devs.

Jbeezy, is there a NRS game that you have ever liked? Honest question. You showed up here in I2, and only ever shit on that game, now we're doing it again in MK11. Why are you here?

 

[Ilthuain]

Apparently, there are a lot of people upset about the DLC.

People are upset about everything.

People say they want open communication, and they get it, and they're mad. People say they just want a roadmap, they get it, and they're mad. They criticize NRS for crunch and say they should take things slower. They take things slower, and now it's a betrayal and people DEMAND their money back.

Cue the heavily-monetized YouTube outrage videos. Talk about broken trust, the value of communication, and some other things that make people good and angry and more likely to click "subscribe".

 

[S+ Main]

I didn't say he was inactive. I said he is relatively new. And that he has spent most of his less-than-two-year tenure complaining, dropping NRS games after a few months and attacking the developer.

isn't that just NRS culture?

 

[xenogorgeous]

People are upset about everything.

People say they want open communication, and they get it, and they're mad. People say they just want a roadmap, they get it, and they're mad. They criticize NRS for crunch and say they should take things slower. They take things slower, and now it's a betrayal and people DEMAND their money back.

Cue the heavily-monetized YouTube outrage videos. Talk about broken trust, the value of communication, and some other things that make people good and angry and more likely to click "subscribe".

yep, we , fanbase, are pure walking contradiction haha