Seasons greetings and happy holidays from Mortal Kombat Online! We're excited to be celebrating another Merry Christmas with you all as we reflect upon twenty-three years of service to the kommunity -- and look ahead to what's coming next!

So this is Christmas. I hope you've had fun! A new year is fast approaching, but lets not forget about this one! Mortal Kombat 11 checked off 12 million units sold, and even as the developer called time on downloadable content -- the war was far from over as MK made a COVID safe return to competition at Evo Online, and spawned a league of its own with the first year of the Mortal Kombat Online Fight Klub service!

Rumors abound regarding NetherRealm Studios' next project and the corporate saga that created a merged WarnerMedia, but even as anticipation took hold at the end of 2021 -- everything old seemed to be becoming new again. PlayStation Plus made Mortal Kombat X a PS5 launch feature, while Xbox celebrated 20 years with backwards compatibility for MK2011 and MKvsDC!

The original Mortal Kombat arcade klassic will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year, and series co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias got us ready with nostalgic morsels like the making of Scorpion's iconic spear and the klassic tournament timeline. We even learned the identity of the Mortal Monday kid! Still no word on an official HD remake, though!

There were two cartoons based on NetherRealm Studios fighting games this year! DC superheroes were jerks in Injustice, while Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms loosely adapted the plot of MKII, and elements from several other later installments. It also dipped into the meme well to give us an unexpected crossover that 63.2% of MK Online users think will manifest soon in Warner Bros' MultiVersus.

Of course, the biggest story of the year was undoubtedly the build up to a new Mortal Kombat movie! You were with us during all the ups & downs of pre-release promotion, sequel speculation, and general mixed reactions. Could 2022 be the year we learn what comes next from HBO Max's standard bearer?

For everyone at Mortal Kombat Online I thank you for sticking with us all these years and hope you'll continue to do so, whether on the web, or on iOS and Android! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!

Its imminent home console release in 1993 sent swarms of children running to the streets to shout its name. Now, all these years later, the Super Nintendo port of Mortal Kombat is giving people fresh reason to scream, fetching a staggering five figure sale price at a recent auction. Read on for details:

Goldin Auctions received eighteen bids on a WATA graded 9.8 sealed copy of the SNES home port [pictured below], closing sale at a mind-boggling $79,200.00 (including buyer's premium). The auction house touts the "Made in Japan" label and WATA Games A+ rated "First-Party V-Seam" in the items description.

The WATA Games grading service came to attention in July with a similar auction sale of Super Mario 64 for $1.5 million dollars. The auction price raised eyebrows not just for its incredible total, but also for the highly irregular increase from similar sales.

An ungraded "like new" box copy of SNES Mortal Kombat can be bought privately through eBay for as little as $79.95, presenting an almost 990% increase if purchased under the gavel with professional grading.

Accusations of alleged fraud and business misconduct have been levelled at WATA Games co-founder Mark Haspel, who breached conflict of interest policies by privately selling graded games. The company was also found to be leveraging undisclosed relationships between Heritage Auctions co-founder and WATA board member/investor, James Halperin, to promote the company, and inflate the value of games.

An extensive investigation into the deceptive practises behind the growing speculation bubble has been documented by Karl Jobst in his YouTube editorials Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION In The Retro Video Game Market and The Retro Video Game Scam Gets Worse.... He unravels various alleged dishonest practises at WATA Games, including shill bidding, rife misrepresentation, and perjury.

[Related Article: Digital Foundry Examines Original Mortal Kombat Ports]

The SNES version of Mortal Kombat was notorious for removing fatality finishing moves the game was famous for, and replacing blood with dubious "sweat". Despite these unpopular deficiencies, the once reviled port has grown in esteem, and will no doubt be a source of nostalgia as we approach the 30th anniversary of the original arcade release.

Would you buy or sell a copy of Mortal Kombat for more than $70 thousand dollars? Share your thoughts about this story in the comments below and go deeper into retro in the 2D Kombat Klassics forum!

Mortal Kombat 11 is one of the biggest selling installments in the hugely successful franchise and now you can add it to even more devices thanks to Xbox Game Pass! The base game is available now for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC!

Xbox Game Pass holders of any level can download the game to their devices right now, but to play online you'll still need an Xbox Live Gold subscription. The Game Pass download is for the base game and does not include Aftermath, Ultimate, or any downloadable content, which is available sold separately.

You will be able to take the online fight against your friends and rivals on all Xbox and PlayStation platforms thanks to innovative intergeneration and interconsole Krossplay! Which means you're also ready to Join the Klub and start uploading matches to Fight Klub! Find & discuss more in the Mortal Kombat 11 forum.

The road to an HD remaster of the original Mortal Kombat has been long & winding. There have been multiple false starts, but from an enthusiastic search for a final destination has come a bold detour: Eyeballistic Inc. With a 30th Anniversary on MK's horizon, the determined developer has asked fans to join them on their continued odyssey toward a finished product. Read on:

We first met the once & future Eyeballistic in the early 2010s as an enthusiastic group of fans working to remake the seminal 1992 arcade klassic. Their efforts worked to create an alternative to the lacklustre 2011 release of Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection.

The team's chosen method of upscaling was a meticulous recreation of sprites using CG models -- a solution to the challenges of digitzed live-action graphics used by the original game, and attempted by another aborted WB production.

A working MUGEN build of "Mortal Kombat HD: Kommunity Edition" was subject to a takedown by the rights holders in 2014. Speaking to Mortal Kombat Online at the time, Eyeballistic Lead Game Designer Gabriel Melendez explained "I never thought of competing with the real MK", but as ambitions grew, the team presented their work to series co-creator Ed Boon in 2016, earning support and an opportunity to pitch to Warner Brothers.

According to Eyeballistic, the publisher felt the project would struggle to "sell over 100,000 units world wide and thus they determined it wouldn’t be worth the substantial cost of marketing the product for sale" and chose to pass, as they did on other attempts to reinvent the klassic trilogy. In 2019, a greenlight was allegedly abruptly reversed as concerns went the other way, fearing a 'cannibalizing of sales' for the big budget release of Mortal Kombat 11.

Taking lessons learned from their experience, Eyeballistic has continued to develop their own independent work, purportedly signing contracts to develop games for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. They haven't given up on the dream of their expanded "Mortal Kombat Trilogy Remake" though, and have launched a Change.org petition in the hopes it will kickstart a new chapter for a build using Unreal Engine 5.

Screenshots released to Dark Side of Gaming demonstrate their expanded ambitions for MK Trilogy Remake, showcasing recreated sprites from the three major arcade releases, including klassic Goro, Mortal Kombat II Raiden, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Scorpion.

At the time of this writing the petition has gained over 5,800 signatures, and the burgeoning developer plans to approach Warner Brothers with a plan for crowdfunded development once their petition reaches 100,000 -- an unusual approach for a publisher as large as the corporate giant.

Although Eyeballistic have greatly expanded their tools and capabilities - including customizing popular proprietary online GGPO tech used similarly by NetherRealm Studios in 2016 - the rallying of fan interest can guarantee nothing more than support for the concept, which has remained mercurial through its many different forms and incarnations.

Last year a PEGI content rating renewed speculation about the existence of the once cancelled Mortal Kombat Kollection Online. Rumor mongering continues to speculate on an impending Mortal Kombat announcement, but for now we can only wonder.

[Related Article: MK30: The Creation of Scorpion's Mortal Kombat Spear]

Would you like to see Mortal Kombat Trilogy live again? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below and speculate about upcoming releases in the Future Mortal Kombat forum. Or go back in time to the games that inspired it all in the 2D Kombat Klassics forum!

Mortal Kombat (2011) was rebooted last month thanks to its inclusion in Xbox Backwards Compatibility support, but with this revival came some unexpected problems accessing the full array of in-game content. WB Games Support was quick to issue a solution and if you're still having problems - read on:

The WB Games boffins wasted no time addressing the complaint via Twitter, which can be resolved through a simple console update and by reinstalling the game.

This should enable full access for players using Xbox 360 disc copies of Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition on either the Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One consoles. If you've been playing other titles actively since first encountering the error -- chances are you're probably ready to go if you reinstall the game. Players experiencing persistent errors while accessing DLC are encouraged to contact Mortal Kombat Games Support.

Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition was the first game developed by NetherRealm Studios to support downloadable content, adding playable characters Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and guest character Freddy Krueger to a 27 character base roster of klassic kombatants from the original trilogy.

The 2011 game was both a retelling and reboot of the original arcade installments, launching a slightly altered new timeline that continues through sequels Mortal Kombat X and MK11. All three games have continued to develop persistent online features that may see future access depend increasingly upon developer support and elaborate fixes.

[Related Article: Fixing Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for Windows 10]

Did this fix work for you? Tell us all about your experiences returning to 2011 in the comments below and in the dedicated Mortal Kombat (2011) forum. Or crossover into the world of DC Universe Injustice to discuss the other backwards compatible game - Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!