It's already been one of the worst kept secrets in gaming, but now it's official: a Mortal Kombat sequel is coming in 2023. Confirmation comes courtesy of Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who addressed a fourth quarter earnings call with a slate of upcoming projects from the corporate giant. Listen to a full excerpt:

A twelfth installment of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise was part of a broader presentation of IP driven strategies for tackling the heavy debt accrued by the recently merged corp in multiple mediums.

MK was confirmed for an unspecified 2023 release, along with the upcoming DC Comics Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League video game. An MK sequel was already all-but confirmed by head developer Ed Boon late last December, but there was notably no mention of a third Injustice. Listen to the full call embedded below, or use navigation links to skip to relevant sections:

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We're also thrilled by what we're seeing coming out of our games business, which represents a core part of our overall strategy. As the only studio scaled in gaming, we see it as a meaningful differentiator, with substantial opportunity. With the successful launch of Hogwarts Legacy two weeks ago, we reimagined one of the biggest global franchises in the world. The game was one of the most highly anticipated of 2023, and consistent with our overall commitment to great storytelling, we delayed the launch to get it right - and the response from consumers has been overwhelmingly positive. We've already seen more than $850 million dollars in retail sales, and we still have more platforms launching over the next few months -- and there's lots more to come. Including the highly anticipated Mortal Kombat 12 - and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Games also set for release this year with ambitious launch projections.

Mortal Kombat was notable in its absence from the company's movie brands during the call, drawing into question the value of its much touted streaming success. Although losses were dramatically cut from previous counts, HBO Max reportedly posted a $217 million dollar loss, leading to restructuring, and much publicised tax breaks that controversially led to the deletion of finished projects, such as DC's Batgirl.

Although a sequel is in development with director Simon McQuoid, it may still be a ways off as it undergoes creative retooling amidst mixed reactions to the 2021 film's original concepts, and the company's new emphasis on 'getting it right' with storytelling under Zaslav. Ed Boon recently commented: "Each iteration of the script is better than the previous!"

[Related Article: Ed Boon Talks Game Announcement, DLC & Characters in Q&A]

Are you hyped to see Mortal Kombat 12 in the coming months? Share your response and hopes in the comments below and keep the speculation coming in the Upcoming MK Games forum!

Don't call it a comeback! Mortal Kombat 11 is officially returning to the Evo World Championship in 2023! The Ultimate version of the most recent installment will continue its uninterrupted presence at the celebrated tournament, which returns to Las Vegas in August. Read on for more detail:

Players from around the globe returned to Mandalay Bay for last year's World Championship after the fight was driven online by the height of a pandemic. MK11's best will once again make the trek for a weekend of elite competition August 4th-6th.

Registration is now open at evo.gg, with a line-up of eight games furnishing the 2023 competition with legendary titles.

New release Street Fighter 6 will make its Evo debut, with Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive, and King of Fighters XV maintaining long-lived series, alongside Dragon Ball FighterZ and Melty Blood, and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 making a surprise comeback for the first-annual throwback tournament!

Will you walk the golden mile to wave the flag for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 11 and claim supremacy over all the realms? Share your story with us in the Mortal Kombat 11 forum, and begin your training with Fight Klub powered by MKO! FIGHT!

It's been five years since the conlcusion of Injustice 2 was published by DC Comics, but the edgy alternate universe inspired by the NetherRealm Studios video game is about to make an unexpected comeback! The Road to Injustice will begin when a pivotal character from the original game crosses over from the current DC Universe. Read on for details:

Jonathan Kent never made an actual appearance in Injustice: Gods Among Us, but his presumed prenatal murder by The Joker, via pregnant mother Lois Lane, triggered the downfall of that universe and sent its heroes to war. Now the Son of Superman is battling into the multiverse, crossing over into the world of Injustice in the upcoming pages of Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent.

Injustice comics writer Tom Taylor continues the legacy from Superman: Son of Kal-El, which will see Jon Kent drawn into a battle to stop another rogue Superman -- Ultraman of Earth-3's Crime Syndicate -- from murdering Supermen across the multiverse. Check out Ultraman looming on the cover of the second issue below with art by Clayton Henry.

Taylor and DC Comics aren't giving away too many plot details yet, but in an interview for the announcement, the writer reveals the story will take place around the time of Injustice: Year 5 and the Injustice 2 video game, and will feature a big face-to-face meeting between Jon Kent and the Regime Superman, as well as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Damian Wayne -- who is his best friend in the main DCU.

Jon Kent is a relatively new character in the DC Universe, introduced in 2015, and rapidly aged from the small son of Superman and Lois Lane, to the high-flying young adult who was trapped on Earth-3 by Ultraman, while adventuring through space with his grandfather, Jor-El. There he served as a hero in the morally inverted universe, which first introduced its evil counterparts to the JLA in 1964's Justice League of America #29. A role he may somewhat reprise for his latest trip.

How long have you been wanting to bring Injustice into your Superman run?
Injustice for me is a very troubled time. I had so much fun on that book. Obviously, I was on it for years. I think I was originally hired for fifteen chapters, and I wrote over 150. But there's a lot about Injustice that that rubs me up the wrong way. I don't believe Superman, no matter what happens to him, can become that person. I don't believe Wonder Woman becomes that person. So, for me, it's a really interesting Elseworld, and throwing Jon Kent as sort of that beacon of hope and in a way, quite an innocent character and a character who wants the best for the world, throwing him into that world where his father has become a dictator gives us so much to play with.

Does this spell more from Injustice in video games? Gods Among Us marks its tenth anniversary this April, with rampant speculation surrounding a third installment of the game series, but only vague allusions from the developer.

Only time will tell if the comic serves as any kind of prelude to an Injustice return. Do you want to see more from NetherRealm's DC project? Share your thoughts in the comments below and explore more of the DC multiverse in the DC Universe Injustice forum.

Have you ever wanted to step into the world of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and take a look around? Now you can thanks to a promotional 360 image revived by Midway Games developer and documentary maker Josh Tsui. Take a closer look with or without VR:

The unique view shows off the Shaolin Temple stage that appears at the beginning of MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero and as an arena in Mortal Kombat 4. This particular 360 preview originally appeared on the Mythologies promotional website, and was unearthed and posted to the Insert Coin YouTube channel with 4K virtual reality compatibility.

Using the embedded video above you can also pan around the temple by dragging the image in any direction without the use of VR. This allows you to observe details from the floor to the dragon logo on the ceiling!

Released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 home consoles; Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was the first attempted spin-off from the main fighting game franchise. It featured the elder Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) as playable protagonist, revealing his backstory as Scorpion's killer, and a pawn in the acquisition of Shinnok's amulet.

Met with mixed reactions, the game is best remembered for its live-action full motion video sequences, and overlap with characters and plotlines featured in the contemporaneous MK4. It continues to be a curiosity in the MK canon.

Which MK arenas would you like to poke around in? Share your thoughts in the comments below and find & discuss more from MK Mythologies in the 2D Kombat Klassics forum. Or crossover into the third dimension in the 3D Kombat Klassics for MK4 and beyond.