It all started here with our exclusive render of an angry Baraka, that gave fans their first glimpse ever of Mortal Kombat: Deception. Since then you've downloaded the screenshots, read about the new characters, saw the interactive environments, and set your eyes on the return of Stage Fatalities. Advancing on the backbone of 2002's hit Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Games is determined this next installment of the best selling beat 'em up franchise will continue to drive back the darker days of the series that fans enjoyed in Mortal Kombat II. Ed Boon and team see no better way to achieve this goal, than to make Mortal Kombat: Deception the first Midway online enabled fighting game for home consoles! When this game is released this Fall, fans will be able to fight once again against complete strangers, show off their moves, and disgust their opponent with a blood drenching finishing move.

At Mortal Kombat Online, we're having a hard time waiting until Fall to get our hands on this title. That's why we are proud to announce our return to Los Angeles, California for our third consecutive LIVE coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo! On May 12-14, stick it here as Scott Howell, CCShadow, D'Arque Bishop, and ]{0MBAT provide their first impressions of Mortal Kombat: Deception as well as the Mortal Kombat titles in Midway Arcade Treasures II! With a day to day breakdown of the games, exclusive screenshots and videos, and in-depth reports, Mortal Kombat Online plans to do everything in its power to outshine its first coverage of E3 in 2002 that rose this site to the top.

This year, Mortal Kombat Online wants to involve its readers in our E3 coverage. That's why we are giving you the opportunity of a life time! From today until Friday, May 7th at 11:59 PM Eastern time we will be accepting submissions for our exclusive Fan Interview with co-creator of the MK series himself, Ed Boon! All submissions are allowed one question per username; any duplicate submissions either by same account and/or clone accounts will not be accepted. We are looking for very well written and thought provoking questions only. From all of the submissions we will be picking the ten best entries which will be taken to Los Angeles to be used in our formal interview with Ed Boon. The ten winning entries will also be entered in a raffle for a free Mortal Kombat Online Shirt! To submit your question please fill out our submission form located here. Any submissions not sent through this form will not be selected for the interview.

As always, our coverage will be updated in conjunction with our E3 Coverage Section. There you can view all of our past trips to E3 and the media that came from those events. Don't miss out, our coverage begins the morning of Wednesday, May 12th!

The interviews keep on coming. A Ziff Davis affiliated gaming site, 1UP.com, has also conducted an interview with series co-creator Ed Boon and producer John Podlasek. 1UP drills some tough answers out of Ed's mouth on Mortal Kombat: Deception as we learn more about Konquest mode, the new Krypt, as well as the improved movement in the multi-tiered stages. When asked about the maneuverability in these interactive environments, Ed goes on to say:

We're really trying to keep it simple, like you can use the analog stick now to move around as well. There's a lot more maneuvering, trying to get behind something or in front of something...we've added some nuances that I think seasoned players are going to notice. We have these fighting stake indicators, which kind of reveal when you are vulnerable during an attack, and also when you can't block, and when you're in the danger zone. I think that's going to educate people a little bit more, [on things like] the risks that you're taking when you do power moves and what have you. So there are going to be a lot of subtleties like that.

As more interviews come in, we will post them here. Thanks to Mortal Kombat Online user mccauslander for sending the news tip!

Game Informer recently conducted an interview with series co-creator Ed Boon and producer John Podlasek on several topics. Ed Boon first gives some of his comments on the classic MK games that will appear in Midway Arcade Treasures II. It has now been confirmed that they will be ports of the original arcade unit, much like if it was running on MAME. When asked what he thought about the conversion, Ed states:

Well, it’s really weird. You look at the title and it’s called Arcade Treasures and that implies “old schoolâ€? video game type things and that’s what I thought of, games like Defender and Robotron and all that stuff from when I first joined the company. So to me, it’s more a reminder of how long I’ve been here and it’s something that I worked on like 12 years ago and it’s considered “old schoolâ€? and I guess it’s considered “old school.â€? A lot of people were in junior high when those games came out so they’ve graduated from college already.

Ed also shines new light for Mortal Kombat: Deception on what to expect at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo on May 12-14. From the interview:

We really don’t want people to see it until it’s absolutely finished. So, not every single character will be playable at E3. Not every background will be there. But, a good representation of what the game will be will be at E3.

He goes on to say that there will be 10 playable characters available during the E3 Expo in two weeks. Keep it here as Mortal Kombat Online will soon be making its official announcement of its coverage of the event. To read the interview in full, click here.

Special thanks to forum user Cervantes and Portal Guard user Potent_Seed for the news tip!

Midway Games today issued a press release detailing their revenues of the first quarter of 2004, showing a loss of $14.3 million, as compared with a $9.3 million first quarter loss compared to 2003. From the press release:

Revenues for the 2004 first quarter were $20.1 million, down from $45.8 million in the 2003 first quarter. The 2004 first quarter net loss was $14.2 million, compared with a 2003 first quarter net loss of $9.3 million. The 2004 first quarter loss applicable to common stock was $15.0 million or $0.27 per share, compared with a 2003 first quarter loss applicable to common stock of $9.6 million or $0.21 per share. Revenues for the first quarter were higher than the Company’s updated guidance provided on April 6, 2004 primarily due to continued strong sales of The Suffering, which launched March 8, 2004.

...
“We are pleased with the results of the first quarter and in particular with the product development and marketing achievements accomplished in the launch of The Suffering. Furthermore, we believe our acquisition of Surreal Software, developer of The Suffering, will increase our internal product development depth thereby strengthening our capacity for creating more high-quality videogames,â€? commented president and chief executive officer David F. Zucker.

The press release also gave a forecast of Midway's 2004 outlook.

For the quarter ending June 30, 2004, the Company expects revenues of approximately $38.0 million with a net loss of approximately $10.0 million. Midway released NBA Ballers in North America on April 5, 2004 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox and has shipped a total of over 600,000 units to date on the two platforms. The Company expects to release two additional titles in North America during the balance of the 2004 second quarter: MLB SlugFest: Loaded and Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy both for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The Company also expects to release The Suffering in Europe during the second quarter for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

“We believe the successful launches of The Suffering and NBA Ballers are solid evidence that our strategy of focusing on fewer, bigger and better titles is paying off and that changes to our operating processes and personnel are yielding results,â€? commented Mr. Zucker.

For the year ending December 31, 2004, Midway is raising its outlook for revenues to approximately $148.0 million, representing a 60% increase over the 2003 revenue levels. The Company also revised its outlook for a net loss of approximately $18.0 million for the year, an approximately $97.2 million improvement versus 2003. The Company previously expected revenues of approximately $140.0 million and a net loss of approximately $20.0 million in 2004.

In a related article, IGN and GameSpot are both reporting that Viacom CEO Summer Redstone has announced his intentions to buy a controlling interest in Midway. From the GameSpot article:

However, Midway officials couldn't put a positive spin on what happened after their announcement. The company's stock lost 9.8 percent of its value ($0.95) after Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone announced his intention to buy a controlling stake in the company. Currently, Redstone's National Amusements company owns 49.3 percent of Midway's stock, and, according to papers filed with the SEC, he plans on increasing that to "at least" 60 percent.

Speaking to Reuters at a conference, Redstone implied he had big plans for the publisher. "You will see very soon an enormous infusion of great creative talent to Midway--and I mean very soon," he said. Redstone also his interest and investment in Midway was purely personal. "I do not look at this as a Viacom agenda," he said.

As we learn more about this breaking story, we will report on it. To read the Midway press release in its entirety, click here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader may be required to view this file.) To read the IGN article in its entirety, click here. To read the GameSpot article in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum members ScorpionKing2003, buterbals113085, and ShingoEX for the heads-up on this story!

TeamXbox recently sat down with John Podlasek, the producer of Mortal Kombat: Deception, for a three page interview about this upcoming project. When asked about his goals for this next installment, John states:

Our two main goals have been to expand and enhance the core fighting game, and create a unique Mortal Kombat universe full of different gameplay types. By adding multiple fatalities, multi-tiered environments, new and classic returning characters, better fatalities and new weapons in the environments we're really expanding how you think about and play a fighting game.

The other goal was to introduce different modes of play set within the context of Mortal Kombat. The biggest and most challenging one is our new Konquest mode. Instead of a linear path of training tasks like in the last one, we're creating something of an RPG-like experience. If you're into strategy and fighting our Chess Kombat mode has 5 different piece classes and mixes board game thinking with classic one-on-one fighting. And the last mode we're really excited about is called Puzzle Kombat. As you move around all these blocks that are falling vertically, a simulated "fight" tied into the player's progress will be going on in the foreground with mini MK characters. At the end of a round the losing side will have a fatality done to them, or things like a 1 ton weight fall and crush the player like a grape. It's real easy to pickup and play, and very addictive (it's not uncommon to hear yelling down the hallway when people are playing it).

To read the interview in its entirety click here. It also contains several new screenshots, some of which we've already released here.