"Midway Chicago did sports and a variety of things. “The name was more because we wanted an identity, and we figured the MK stuff was buried inside of Midway," says Villani. And thus, in April 2010, NetherRealm Studios was born. Midway Chicago rebranded to WB Games Chicago, and it was time to fully embrace its new identity and develop something more personal. And if you looked up, you could still see all the hardware in the ceiling of what they would use to build the pinball cabinets. “The foam tiles had watermarks and mildew marks. I remember sitting in the cafeteria with, and I’m looking at this really gnarly kitchen, and I’m like, ‘This is terrible.’ It looked like a mechanic’s cafeteria. “I remember my first day there, I was like, ‘They make Mortal Kombat here?’ It was just this run-down, hacked-together garbage office. “Midway’s building was a total, total dump,” he says bluntly. But I just remember being taken aback, like, ‘Wow, what is this place? It is so s-y looking!’” They showed me around, and despite the building being so old, it still felt alive and cool. I walked in, and it was even worse on the inside. “I went to their old studio location, and it was this weird, industrial, nondescript building. “They called me in for an in-person interview, and I was so excited,” Syed says. While the innermost parts were lovingly decorated with Mortal Kombat memorabilia, others looked like they were spat out of the actual Netherrealm. While the extra support took many forms, the move to a new building was the most evident, given the old office’s dire state.ĭaanish Syed, a 2D cinematic associate artist on MK9, remembers the decrepit, leaky building when first interviewing at the company in early 2010. Midway Chicago became WB Games Chicago, bringing much-needed stability and better funding. I can’t even imagine if somebody just buys it and throws whatever team on it and says, ‘Let’s just make some Mortal Kombat games because we own the IP.’ It could’ve been a disaster.”īecoming NetherRealm Becoming NetherRealm That was a super tenuous point for the whole series. “They were still paying our salaries, so there was no immediate threat that was going to stop suddenly, but there was a real threat that everything would go sideways if WB or whoever was looking at us didn’t buy us. “If your company is in bankruptcy, that’s a serious thing,” Villani says. “I was like, ‘You’re not making me feel good right now.’ And he told me, ‘Be happy I’m telling you to come to work on Tuesday.’ Monday came, and I started getting calls from all my friends like, ‘Hey, did you get laid off?’ So he was telling me to stay away because they were going to have a mass layoff to compensate for the bankruptcy.”ĭirector of engineering Alan Villani admits there was fear around the bankruptcy and the idea of splitting the team from Mortal Kombat. “One of the leads at Midway Chicago called me on Friday and said, ‘Don’t come in to work on Monday,’” says O’Meara. That was only the first wave of confusion rushing over Midway’s employees. In our 9/10 review of the previous game, IGN said: "Mortal Kombat 11 is the best game in the 27-year-old series thanks to deep, methodical new mechanics and fun story.Senior animator Richard O’Meara was in a similar boat as Kawa but got his ominous call just before the weekend. Mortal Kombat 11 launched way back in 2019, marking a solid four-year wait for fans of a little (or a lot) graphic gore and violence in their fighting games. These Kameo Fighters are a new roster of characters that assist the player during matches, and are chosen from a unique roster separate to the main Mortal Kombat 1 characters.Ī $249.99 Kollector's Edition will be available too for just PS5 and Xbox Series that includes all Premium Edition content plus a 16.5 inch Liu Kang sculpture, three exclusive art prints, a steel case, and 1,450 additional Dragon Krystals.Ī beta will be also take place in August for those who preorder any version of the game on PS5 and Xbox Series, while post-launch NetherRealm will add cross-play and cross-progression,įans have been eagerly awaiting the game since NetherRealm revealed it was working on a new project as of July 2021 after ending support on Mortal Kombat 11, while Johnny Cage voice actor Andrew Bowen teased in a swiftly deleted tweet that the 12th entry was in development.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |