thehadou
Bumbling towards greatness.
Hey everyone,
Wanted to pick a place to talk about the event’s decision to run Mortal Kombat X on PS4, and the event thread here on TYM seems best suited.
I spent a very long time deliberating, with players, with other TOs, with local polls, and random Twitter followers, over what system to run Mortal Kombat X on. The pros for each console are readily apparent, with complicated-to-use-back-compatible controllers and ESL leagues/money being the respective front runners in most people’s minds. I’ve had about a week with a batch of dedicated gamers to test out both the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game, and truthfully other than differing netcode experiences I am hard-pressed to find substantial differences between the two. With each holding the patch offline, and it being too early in the game’s life to judge how hot-fixes will behave, there just isn’t a forced “best” console.
I’ve been a very strong supporter of Killer Instinct in the past year, so I understand why a lot of people assumed I’d take the ESL announcements as an immediate excuse to run with MKX on Xbox One. While I’m willing to admit that a personal bias towards wanting more players with KI access is present, it didn’t sway the decision to run the game on PS4 at Combo Breaker.
Instead I looked forward to how I view the FGC in 2016.
I find it easy to see the PS4; a console with SF4, SFV, and Guilty Gear as exclusives, with Mortal Kombat X available, with the historically Sony favoring Tekken 7 fan-base looming, and EVO’s support, as the dominant tournament console. While unpleasant for someone who actively loves his Xbox One, greatly appreciates the push ESL is making with Microsoft, and wants to please everyone, I think the PS4 raises a potential chance for the FGC to mostly unify around one console in the long term. This isn’t something that was possible in the 360/PS3 generation, and it created long-standing riffs in the player base for all games. I’m a strong believer in fighting game players, although possessing favorites, generally playing lots of fighting games. So having a single console with nearly all of the most popular franchises available is a potential melting pot community wise.
I recognize that this isn’t perfect with the ESL series on Xbox. Yet, with the less than perfect netcode experienced this week I’m also not 100% sold on ESL’s online leagues being a pillar for high level play. When the online leagues get removed from the “PROs” column it gets significantly harder to support Xbox One use right now. Knowing that the other tournaments in proximity to Combo Breaker, such as CEO and EVO (and possibly SCR), are running MKX on PS4 also means that console is likely more beneficial for regularly traveling players this summer.
I’m truly sorry to the players this decision disappoints, and doubly so to those who, like me, own Xbox One sticks and Hitboxes. I am hoping this is a good decision for the future of the game’s offline community though. If I’m wrong we’ll find out in the coming months and all move forward from there.
Respect to everyone. Looking forward to getting some games in.
- Rick
@STORMS
Wanted to pick a place to talk about the event’s decision to run Mortal Kombat X on PS4, and the event thread here on TYM seems best suited.
I spent a very long time deliberating, with players, with other TOs, with local polls, and random Twitter followers, over what system to run Mortal Kombat X on. The pros for each console are readily apparent, with complicated-to-use-back-compatible controllers and ESL leagues/money being the respective front runners in most people’s minds. I’ve had about a week with a batch of dedicated gamers to test out both the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game, and truthfully other than differing netcode experiences I am hard-pressed to find substantial differences between the two. With each holding the patch offline, and it being too early in the game’s life to judge how hot-fixes will behave, there just isn’t a forced “best” console.
I’ve been a very strong supporter of Killer Instinct in the past year, so I understand why a lot of people assumed I’d take the ESL announcements as an immediate excuse to run with MKX on Xbox One. While I’m willing to admit that a personal bias towards wanting more players with KI access is present, it didn’t sway the decision to run the game on PS4 at Combo Breaker.
Instead I looked forward to how I view the FGC in 2016.
I find it easy to see the PS4; a console with SF4, SFV, and Guilty Gear as exclusives, with Mortal Kombat X available, with the historically Sony favoring Tekken 7 fan-base looming, and EVO’s support, as the dominant tournament console. While unpleasant for someone who actively loves his Xbox One, greatly appreciates the push ESL is making with Microsoft, and wants to please everyone, I think the PS4 raises a potential chance for the FGC to mostly unify around one console in the long term. This isn’t something that was possible in the 360/PS3 generation, and it created long-standing riffs in the player base for all games. I’m a strong believer in fighting game players, although possessing favorites, generally playing lots of fighting games. So having a single console with nearly all of the most popular franchises available is a potential melting pot community wise.
I recognize that this isn’t perfect with the ESL series on Xbox. Yet, with the less than perfect netcode experienced this week I’m also not 100% sold on ESL’s online leagues being a pillar for high level play. When the online leagues get removed from the “PROs” column it gets significantly harder to support Xbox One use right now. Knowing that the other tournaments in proximity to Combo Breaker, such as CEO and EVO (and possibly SCR), are running MKX on PS4 also means that console is likely more beneficial for regularly traveling players this summer.
I’m truly sorry to the players this decision disappoints, and doubly so to those who, like me, own Xbox One sticks and Hitboxes. I am hoping this is a good decision for the future of the game’s offline community though. If I’m wrong we’ll find out in the coming months and all move forward from there.
Respect to everyone. Looking forward to getting some games in.
- Rick
@STORMS
