Earlier today, the folks over at Midway issued a press release today announcing that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe had achieved several milestones. The biggest of these milestones is the fact that the game has shipped over 1.8 million units since the game's release. In addition, the game set an internal record for most pre-sells of any Mortal Kombat title in the series history. Also, according to numbers from GameSpy Technology (which has provided online multiplayer for MK on Playstation titles since MK: Deception), 3.6 million online matches of MKvsDCU have been played on Playstation 3 since the game's release. However, no mention was made of how many matches had been played on Xbox Live.

Also, it was officially confirmed by Midway that work on the next Mortal Kombat game had begun. In a short statement, Ed Boon said, "We're already hard at work on our next version of Mortal Kombat, and look forward to being able to reveal more details in the future." Considering the release schedule of Mortal Kombat titles, it may be several months before anything concrete is seen from the next game. As we learn more, we'll be sure to report it here.

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Ed Boon's official website, Noob.com, has undergone a revamp of sorts with the former clues leading up to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe being replaced by a few different news items.

First, as previously mentioned, the MK development team will be on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network to take challenges from online players this coming Friday, January 23rd, 2009. You can read more about this in our previous news story on the item.

Secondly, Ed has placed a link to Wired.com's 2008 top 10 games, where MKvsDCU is featured on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 lists. To view this story, click here.

Finally, Ed was recently a guest on a podcast with Major Nelson. During a 15 minute or so interview, Ed discusses his history in the video game industry, the fighting game genre in general, as well as the confirmation that downloadable content in the form of additional characters (tentatively, one from each faction) will be available at some point in the new future. You can listen to this podcast here; the website handily instructs you where Ed's portion of the interview begins as this is a one hour plus MP3.

Thanks to the many various users who reported these stories separately and collectively!

Over on the Midway Boards, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe producer Hector Sanchez (aka MK_Hec) has thrown down the gauntlet. He has announced that on Friday, January 23rd, the MKvsDCU development team will be online on both Playstation Network and X-Box Live to challenge the community. From the forum post:

the rumors are correct! the mortal kombat team is planning on doing something we've never done before, and that's organize a night where we can play against you guys online! we've been checking out the online activity and we're itching to get out there and see what you've got!

there was a mix-up on the date, though, as we were originally planning on holding this event tomorrow night (the 16th) on PSN. but we decided that we're going to delay both PSN and XBox LIVE matches until NEXT FRIDAY, the 23rd so we can build up a little anticipation (you know, get some smack talk in, scope out the leaderboards, etc.)

stay tuned for more info as it becomes available! this should be a fun week. ;-)

and yes, Ed will be playing too.

As Hector reveals more, we'll edit this news post to reflect the changes. There's a week to practice and get ready, so good luck to everyone!

Our thanks to forum/chat member for the heads-up on this news!

EDIT - 6:15 PM CST - Hector has sent out a list of the gamertags to look for for next Friday.

PSN

• MKNoob
• MKHornbuckle
• MKABACABB
• MKHanzoHasashi
• MKBlindKenshi
• MKTundra
• MKApep
• MKKetchup
• MKMustard
• MKSkully
• FreezeGoroSweep

Xbox Live

• Kamidogu
• MK Noob
• MK Hornbuckle
• MK ABACABB
• MK HanzoHasashi
• MK BlindKenshi
• MK Tundra
• MK Apep
• MK Ketchup
• MK Mustard
• MK Skully
• FreezeGoroSweep

The developers playing will include Ed Boon himself, Paulo Garcia, Brian Lebaron, Ryan Rosenberg, Eddie Ferrier, Adam Hernandez, Dave Bulvan, Derek Kirtzic, Shaun Himmerick, Hans Lo, and Hector himself.

If you want to be among the first in line to play, send those gamertags a private message saying hi and that you want to play them. Don't forget to tell them you're a member of Mortal Kombat Online!

As we hear more from Hector, we'll post it here. Good luck, everyone!

News comes today that Midway Games has reached an agreement with some of its note holders to extend their right to make the company buy back the notes until February 19th, 2009. It would appear that Midway is hoping for successful releases of their upcoming games, Wheelman and This is Vegas.

The short article discussing this story can be found on BusinessWeek.com.

Our thanks to forum and chat user for the lead on this story.