Mortal Kombat studio’s mobile team hit with layoffs, report says

By Carli Velocci Published July 18, 2024

Mortal Kombat Onslaught promo image featuring multiple MK characters. — NetherRealm Studios

Mass layoffs have hit Mortal Kombat and Injustice developer NetherRealm Studios, according to reports by former workers on Thursday.

As spotted by TechRaptor, the layoffs seemed to mostly impact the mobile team. Among those affected was quality assurance (QA)analyst Tony Lazzara, who posted about the layoffs on LinkedIn, and also noted that the entire team had been shut down. He didn’t specify how many people were laid off or if it the layoffs were limited to just mobile, but said “a ton of very talented people were put out of work.” Another former NetherRealm QA analyst, Samantha Edward, posted that the move impacted “most of my colleagues” on the mobile side.

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The team worked on 2023’s Mortal Kombat: Onslaught and Mortal Kombat Mobile. As TechRaptor pointed out, Mortal Kombat Mobile just received an update on Wednesday, adding comics character Spawn, other character variants, and new events. NetherRealm also continues to support its other titles. Mortal Kombat 1 just added Takeda Takahashi as a playable character, and it will be at the Evo games tournament, which kicks off this weekend.

It’s unclear if NetherRealm is exiting mobile entirely, or if this is all a consequence of losses at parent company Warner Bros. Games, due in part to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopping. In March, division head J.B. Perrette said that it would be pivoting to focus on its more profitable IP, such as Hogwarts Legacy (and Harry Potter in general), along with MultiVersus. He also added that this includes live-service, free-to-play, and mobile games.

Neither NetherRealm nor Warner Bros. Games have made an official statement on the matter. Digital Trends reached out to NetherRealm Studios for comment and will update this story when we receive a response.

Former Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

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Gaming

Mortal Kombat 1 already teased a sequel. Here are 5 key takeaways from the ending

An ominous red portal opens up in a field in the Mortal Kombat 1 trailer.

This article contains spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1.
Mortal Kombat 1’s story mode has a bombastic conclusion.
Thousands of characters from a multiverse of timelines face off against each other as Liu Kang and Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath’s ending have their final battle. It has a fairly definitive conclusion, with Liu Kang winning and the multiverse continuing to exist, mostly in peace. When it comes to what’s next for the “new era” Liu Kang created, NetherRealm Studios does leave some plot points, especially in the canon Tower character endings, to potentially follow up in a sequel.
Some of the threads that NetherRealm can follow up on are character-specific, like Reptile looking for who was murdering Zaterrans who could turn human or Jax and Kenshi joining an Outworld-focused division of the FBI. Five narrative beats, in particular, could potentially set up the main conflicts of the game’s inevitable sequel. If a follow-up to Mortal Kombat 1’s story does come around, these are some developments that you should expect it to follow up on.
Lord Havik is coming for Liu Kang’s new era

Throughout Mortal Kombat 1, Havik is a minor player in Liu Kang’s new era, serving as a grunt for Shang Tsung before getting part of his face melted off by Scorpion. It looks like this character introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deception will play a much more significant role in a Mortal Kombat 1 sequel, though. A post-credit scene in the game shows a Titan version of Havik, who likely is the master of his own timeline, walk in the aftermath of Mortal Kombat 1’s final battle.
After killing a Jax variant, he waxes poetic to evil-looking versions of Kenshi, Tanya, and Quan-Chi about how glorious it was to see warriors from across timelines all fighting in one place and how it ended too quickly. He concludes by saying: “Next time, it won’t.” It’s safe to assume that this version of the character, referred to in-game as “Lord Havik,” will be the next multiversal threat to Mortal Kombat’s timelines. He will surely create lots of chaos for the heroes.
Reiko is awakening Onaga

Gaming

How to unlock all Kameo Fighters in Mortal Kombat 1

Rain stands next to Sektor in Mortal Kombat 1.

Despite always sticking to the traditional one-versus-one format for the main series, Mortal Kombat 1 has introduced a secondary system using Kameo Fighters that you can call in to assist you during a fight. This helps expand the roster from its already impressive ranks by including some fan favorites, but more importantly, it adds a new level of depth to the fighter to consider when picking your backup. These assists even have their own unique Fatalities as well! Even so, just like Havik, you have to do a little work to unlock these Kameo Fighters. If you want to take the fight to the online ranks, you will need to have all the Kameo Fighters at your disposal. Here's how to unlock them all in Mortal Kombat 1.
How to unlock all Kameo Fighters
Unlocking Kameo Fighters is tied to your overall profile level. You level up your profile by doing basically any activity in the game, such as playing Invasions mode and the Tower. Whatever you pick, every five levels you reach will reward you with one new Kameo Fighter. Here's which ones you unlock at each milestone:

Level 5 - Scorpion

Gaming

Mortal Kombat 1 Fatalities: how to do every character’s Fatality

Shang Tsung stealing someone's soul in Mortal Kombat 1.

What set the Mortal Kombat franchise apart when it first hit arcades was just how brutally violent the games were. It looks tame now, but the Fatalities of the original game were some of the most shocking things anyone had seen in a game up to that point, pixelated graphics and all. With Mortal Kombat 1, NetherRealm continues to churn our stomachs with some of the most disgustingly detailed ways to dismantle your opponent. Everyone loves seeing these creative ways your favorite fighter can definitively end a fight, but if you want to show off to your friends and humiliate your enemy, you have to know the specific button input to pull it off for each character. There are more that you can unlock, but here is how to perform every character's basic Fatality in Mortal Kombat 1.
How to perform all basic Fatalities
Here are all the default inputs for every character's Fatality on PlayStation and Xbox controls in alphabetical order, as well as what range you need to be at to trigger the Fatality. Once you have reduced your opponent's health to 0 and they are susceptible to a Fatality, which you will know from the announcer calling out "Finish him" or "Finish her," you will have five seconds to input the correct sequence.
Ashrah - Mid range
Down, Forward, Down, Triangle/Y
Baraka - Close range
Back, Forward, Down, Square/X
General Shao - Mid range
Back, Forward, Down, Square/X
Geras - Mid range
Forward, Down, Down, Circle/B
Havik - Close range
Down, Forward, Down, Circle/B
Johnny Cage - Close range
Forward, Back, Down, Triangle/Y
Kenshi - Close range
Forward, Down, Down, Triangle/Y
Kitana - Mid range
Down, Forward, Down, Circle/B
Kung Lao - Mid range
Down, Down, Back, Circle/B
Li Mei - Close range
Forward, Back, Forward, Cross/A
Lui Kang - Close range
Back, Forward, Down, Circle/B
Mileena - Close range
Back, Forward, Back, Square/X
Nitara - Mid range
Down, Down, Back, Square/X
Raiden - Close range
Back, Forward, Back, Triangle/Y
Rain - Close range
Down, Down, Back, Circe/B
Reiko - Mid range
Down, Down, Back, Triangle/Y
Reptile - Mid range
Forward, Back, Down, Circle/B
Scorpion - Mid range
Down, Forward, Back, RT
Shang Tsung - Close range
Back, Down, Down, Circle/B
Sindel - Mid range
Down, Back, Down, Square/X
Smoke - Any range
Back, Forward, Down, Square/X
Sub Zero - Any range
Forward, Down, Down, Triangle/Y
Tanya - Close range
Down, Back, Down, Cross/A
All Kameo Fighter Fatalities
Cyrax - Mid range
Forward, Back, Forward, RB
Darrius - Mid range
Down, Back, Forward, RB
Frost - Mid range
Back, Down, Back, RB
Goro - Close range
Back, Forward, Down, RB
Jax - Far range
Down, Forward, Down, RB
Kano Mid range
Back, Down, Forward, RB
Kung Lao - Mid range
Forward, Back, Forward, RB
Sareena - Mid range
Back, Down, Down, RB
Scorpion - Mid range
Down, Forward, Down, RB
Sektor - Mid range
Back, Forward, Back, RB
Shunjiko - Mid range
Down, Back, Down, RB
Sonya - Mid range
Back, Forward, Down, RB
Stryker - Mid range
Forward, Down, Forward, RB
Sub-Zero - Mid range
Forward, Down, Forward, RB