Our friends over at TRMK are reporting on the strong possibility that WB Games Chicago (the home of the MK team) will be renamed to Netherrealm Studios. According to gaming blog Superannuation, WB Games has registered the name "Netherrealm Studios". Following up on that, Patrick McCarron of TRMK did some checking, and found that the domain name netherrealmstudios.com has been registered by WB Games. While the name currently does not resolve, it's certain that it will be up and running at some point soon. From the TRMK news posting:

Since Netherrealm is a known place in the Mortal Kombat universe, this falls into line perfectly with our previous editorial about WB Games Chicago getting a new name. So since Warner Bros. went through the trouble to register the trademark and domain names I would be fairly certain to say that Netherrealm Studios will be the new name of the Warner Bros. Games studio based in Chicago responsible for the Mortal Kombat series, as well as other games they create. It's likely we'll likely see this name revealed along with the first reveal of Mortal Kombat 9.

We at MK Online concur with this analysis. We'll be keeping an eye out; as we learn more, we'll be sure to post it here.

To see the original superannuation post, click here. To see the original TRMK posting, click here.

Our thanks to Patrick McCarron of TRMK for the heads-up on this breaking news story!

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the folks over at Warner Bros. have fully secured their rights to the Mortal Kombat intellectual property, by trademarking games and clothing.

The three patents cover the following areas:

• CD-ROM computer game discs; game equipment sold as a unit for playing a parlor-type computer game; downloadable software for use in playing online computer games, downloadable computer game software; video and computer game programs; video game cartridges and cassettes
• Providing an on-line computer game; conducting contests on-line; providing a computer game that may be accessed by telecommunications network; and electronic publishing services, namely, publication of text and graphic works of others on-line featuring articles, novelizations, scripts, comic books, strategy guides, photographs and visual materials
• Clothing for men, women and children – namely, shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jogging suits, trousers, pants, shorts, tank tops, skirts, blouses, dresses, rainwear, sweaters, jackets, coats, raincoats, snow suits, ties, robes, hats, caps, sunvisors, belts, scarves, sleepwear, pajamas, lingerie, underwear, boots, shoes, sneakers, sandals, socks, booties, slipper socks, swimwear and masquerade and Halloween costumes and masks sold in connection therewith

Some are already speculating that there may be a return to the mid-90s, in which Mortal Kombat merchandise was everywhere. It may be a bit early for such predictions, although this certainly would be a good first step in such a direction.

Thanks go to forum member cyberdog for raising this discussion!

In addition to being available on Blu-Ray and Netflix, as reported earlier, the Mortal Kombat movies are now available in the Apple iTunes store as well!

"We're thrilled to add this property to the iTunes lineup," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "The Mortal Kombat films, while available for the iPod and AppleTV, have never looked better than they do on the iPad."

"Besides the movies, we have also made available the films' accompanying soundtracks, the two TV shows [MK: Conquest and MK: Defenders of the Realm], the straight-to-video release [MK: The Journey Begins], the online-exclusive fights [MK: Federation of Martial Arts], and for the first time ever on video - the Mortal Kombat Live Tour!" explains Martin Tremblay, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "We've also had some success on iTunes with digital comics books on some of our DC properties such as Superman: Red Son, and so we will be adding the Mortal Kombat comics later on in the year, as well."

To visit the iTunes store directly, click here. A big thanks go to Apple Insider for the word on this update!