Killer Instinct is a great fighting game with a vibrant and dedicated community- it is also, of late, becoming the hotbed to be Microsoft’s own crossover fighter, similar to how Nintendo has Smash Bros. Killer Instinct has already had the Arbiter from Halo and General Raam from Gears of War added to it- and more characters from Microsoft’s other franchises may be en route to the game too, if a new survey put out by Microsoft is to be believed.

The survey lists nine characters, and asks fans to rank them from most to least wanted. Among the characters listed are Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, a Crackdown Agent, and a brute from Halo– and considering that Season 3’s roster additions are concluded, these characters are probably meant to be Season 4 additions.

If so, we will probably see them next year, based on how the survey goes. Killer Instinct is available now on Xbox One and PCs running Windows 10.

A new trailer for Microsoft’s Killer Instinct is now available, and it shows off Gargos in action. Gargos looks to be a supremely powerful character who will undoubtedly be favored by the community- and possibly be one of the best characters to play as for any newcomers to the game.

You can check out the video, which shows him, his moves, and his general fighting style, below. Honestly, I think he may be a bit overpowered- certainly, the video shows off a lot of great abilities that he has, many which seem to have no obvious counters, or checks and balances. But maybe in practice, while playing with him, there are limits to what he can do.

Killer Instinct is now in its third season. It is available on Xbox One and Windows 10 (and the PC port of the game is actually a competent one for a change, unlike Microsoft’s other Windows 10 ports so far).

Microsoft launched Killer Instinct for PC users finally last month, and it looks like that, alongside the launch of Season 3, which was the biggest overhaul in the game’s history yet, really brought in new players- in March, Microsoft reported the biggest active base for Killer Instinct yet, with 6 million unique users playing the game.

The number comes to us thanks to Microsoft’s press release for the NPD numbers for last month, where they specifically highlighted Killer Instinct‘s success- the number is probably especially impressive for them because even as the much hyped Street Fighter 5 for the PS4 and PC seems to have sunk without a trace in terms of commercial performance, Killer Instinct seems to have made an unexpected comeback.

Killer Instinct wasn’t the only fighter doing well last month, either- Pokken Tournament launched on Wii U last month, and charted extremely high in the NPD rankings as well. On the whole, it seems to have been a great month for fighting games all around.

Killer Instinct is available on PCs running Windows 10, and on Xbox One.

Killer Instinct Season 3 finally launches tomorrow, and it is probably the biggest update that the game has received since its launch in 2013- Season 3 marks a complete graphical overhaul of the title, and it also marks the first time that the game will be made available to PC players via a Windows 10 version.

Ahead of the launch, Microsoft shared a brand new video for the game, showcasing the performance test for the PC version, letting players gauge just how the game may run on their configurations. Plus, of course, you know- new gameplay footage, too.

Killer Instinct Season 3 launches tomorrow on the Xbox One, and on PCs running Windows 10. It is the third annual refresh and expansion of the reboot of the classic Rare fighting game franchise- and for the first time in the series’ history, it introduces guest characters into the fray, with the Halo series’ Arbiter joining the game’s roster.

Killer Instinct: Season 3 is releasing later this month and in honor of the impending launch, there have been a couple of new characters leaked this week. One of the characters that was just leaked is one that has appeared earlier in the remake of the series. The other one is yet another guest character from an entirely different video game series. It’s probably not a coincidence that this new guest character is yet another alien life form, as his been the case with almost all the the guest characters.

Mira is the first player that was leaked, according to Neogaf user no1dead. The second character that was leaked earlier this week is General RAAM. This is the main baddy from the original Gears of War game. Just how the character has found himself in Killer Instinct: Season 3 isn’t yet known, in large part because we weren’t supposed to know he was even in the game just yet. Mira was actually in the very first season of the reboot, but she was supposedly killed, giving her life for her twin sister.

While there is a little bit of art to go along with the leak of Mira, RAAM does not yet have any actual art, though there is a screen shot that does indeed confirm he is in this game. Killer Instinct: Season 3 lands on the Xbox One and PC on March 29, 2016.

Thanks, Shoryuken.

Killer Instinct Season 3 is almost here- the third season of the popular Xbox One exclusive fighting game is going to be more than just additional characters (though we get those too)- it’s going to be a full overhaul of the game, with new graphics, new modes, and a Windows 10 version coming up to boost the game’s player count.

Among the new characters included in Season 3 are Tusk, Rash, and the Arbiter from the popular Halo franchise- and if, like me, you have been waiting to see how these new characters will look reimagined in the new Killer Instinct game, you’re in luck- we now have loads of screenshots to answer that question for us. You can check them out for yourself below.

Killer Instinct Season 3 will be launching on March 29 on Xbox One; Season 3 also marks the debut of the franchise on PC, with a version of the game launching on Windows 10 PCs simultaneously as well.

While Street Fighter V continues to struggle with its launch, Microsoft’s own Xbox One exclusive fighter, Killer Instinct, now enters its third year, with most of its problems behind it, and a strong foundation for further improvements and iterations. And so, as we enter Season 3, Microsoft and developer Iron Galaxy are now going to start paying attention to other things- such as the game’s graphics.

“We are excited to be adding several new elements to KI Season 3 that we believe really improve the overall experience, and I’m going to be speaking to the ‘Art side’ of things today,” explained Art Director, Chad Greene, to Ultra Combo. “In terms of visuals, we are adding new graphics technology; reflection tech for the stages; re-introducing screen space color adjustments that work with gameplay; adding an all-new dynamic lighting system that provides greater realism and interaction for the characters and stages.”

“As technology advances, graphics are becoming more and more powerful and the gamers have come to expect stunning visuals on today’s console hardware,” continued Greene. “Early in development of S3, we knew that we wanted to raise the bar on many levels and have a deep passion for delivering on ‘next gen’ visuals. In order to do this, we had to overhaul the tools and the pipeline and we’re really happy with the results and how we are utilizing the graphic power of the Xbox One.

“Our lighting system was very specialized, and it was time for an overhaul. We met as a team to ideate and decided to use a system that allowed us to obtain dynamic lighting for the game, but work with our existing game engine. Once in place, our stages were completely re-lit utilising the new tools while characters received updates to their lighting probes, which allows them to interact with the stage lighting. Characters now composite into the scenes in a way that is really believable – allowing for good integration/compositing while maintaining readability – especially important in a fighting game.

“We are now able to get realistic bounce and fill lighting on the characters and we are using strong rim lighting (from behind) to further pull the characters out from the background.”

Killer Instinct Season 3 will launch on the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs on March 10.

A brand new character is headed to the playable cast of Microsoft and Double Helix’s expertly done reboot of Rare’s long standing, classic fighting game franchise Killer Instinct. Following a period of immense teasing, Riptor will finally be added to the cast of playable characters of Killer Instinct tomorrow for Killer Instinct Season Two Ultra Edition owners, and December 23rd for Combo Breaker owners. Even if you have not paid for the game in any capacity, don’t worry, since Microsoft’s model for Killer Instinct ensures that each character is playable for free at one point or the other.

You can check out the trailer in which Riptor makes her debut above; like with most Marvel movies, you may want to stick with it through to the very end, as we get a tease for the next character to be added to the game, called only, enigmatically enough, ‘the herald of Gargos.’

Killer Instinct is available exclusively on Xbox One.

Killer Instinct will be receiving some new characters via a new Season 2 update from Double Helix and today, we finally got to see one of the newest characters: Boxer TJ Combo, who shows off his fisticuffs-heavy style in the newest trailer. Check it out above.

TJ Combo has some rather slick moves and can even employ some unique wrestling moves like spine-busters and throws to incapacitate the competition. Think of him as a combination between Balrog and Zangief only tougher.

Killer Instinct: Season 2 will be releasing in Fall 2014 for Xbox One. Will you be picking it up? Let us know below along with other new characters you’d like to see added.

Microsoft’s E3 2014 media briefing has begun to kick off and you can check out all the announcements, reveals and latest trailers live by heading here. We’ll be bringing you up to date coverage of the game so stay tuned.

Microsoft has now released the Fulgore title update for Killer Instinct. Fulgore is the latest title update for the Xbox One fighter which also introduces to the game’s eighth and final new character of the season, the cyborg knight Fulgore. The new title update also adds an Arcade Mode to the game.

Other than these two pretty nice and interesting additions, the new title update for Killer Instinct adds online lobbies featuring eight-player rooms and a spectating functionality. The entire update will weigh 6.8 GB in total.

Killer Instinct came out for the Xbox One as a free to play digital launch title, and when we reviewed it, we thought it was a decent title and gave it a score of 7.5, praising its combat system, visuals and combat, while saying that the characters roster was a little too small. We gave it a score of 7.5, saying, “Killer Instinct is a beautiful, fun and entertaining fighting game. But the lack of fighters and arcade mode is sorely disappointing.”

Well, at least we have an arcade mode now.

You can read our review here.