Update: Series co-creator Ed Boon has acknowledged our story and tweeted that the information in this article is incorrect. Given the altogether malleable nature of placeholder elements for future content in games, it’s clear that our initial research wasn’t concrete evidence of on-disc DLC. We apologize to Ed Boon, the development team and our readers for the inconvenience caused.
Original Story:
Since the initial launch Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat X, the game has received quite a fair number of negative criticism, primarily amongst those playing on the PC. With a noticeable amount of iconic characters missing, paid DLC controversy, and the infamous Goro being locked behind a paywall for those who skipped the pre-order bonus, many of the complaints regarding the title seem rightfully so.
Taking into account the price of the initial base game along with all of the available DLC content, the game’s sheer price doubles, and that’s just the least of it’s problems. For those on the PC, it was said they would be to play the game while simultaneously installing it, thanks to Steam’s latest update.
However, as the game wasn’t actually available until the late hours of the day despite being it’s day of launch, none of the installation files where actually available, and once they where, the game experienced severe crashing issues, with most users being left to browse the main menu as opposed to actually playing the game.
Regarding the controversy over the game’s DLC content however, an interesting turn of events have risen, one born out of pure curiosity. Playing on the PC myself, the issues surrounding the game’s frame-rate cap falling from 60 to 30 which occurs during cut-scenes, x-ray combos, and the iconic fatality, I decided to fix the problem for myself.
As with games that have been plagued by frame-rates caps in the past few years, all it takes is an experienced user to simply navigate the installation folders and edit the corresponding file. Upon this search however, I came across something far more interesting. The amount of negative criticism that Capcom received for on-disc DLC, a few years back hasn’t fared well with consumers, nor has it been enough for Warner Bros to take note from.
After being redirected to download the game from Steam, since there was nothing placed on the actual physical disc, of which I had purchased to avoid any possible download interruptions, that had been plaguing PC users. Browsing the game’s installation folder in order to apply a fix to it’s disorienting frame-rate cap, half of the aforementioned content seemed to already be available.
Looking at the screenshot above, taken from my PC desktop, assets indicating Goro and Jason, as well as future DLC content regarding Kung Lao, Jax, Kenshi, Mileena, and many many others appear to already be pre-installed with the base game.
Pre-orders regarding Mortal Kombat X giving consumers access to Goro, and a season pass granting future access to four upcoming characters, two of which by the name of Jason Vorhees and John McTiernan’s Predator seem like an interesting buying option as well as an interesting fit for the Mortal Kombat series. Keeping the majority of which, being locked behind a pay wall, pre-installed from day one, doesn’t seem very consumer friendly.
Let us know what you think in the comments section below, and stay tuned for more information.