everyone is rightfully excited Mortal Kombat 1especially longtime fans, will be excited to see NetherRealm take inspiration from PS2-era Mortal Kombat.
Unfortunately, those of us on PC won’t get as much love in pre-release as other platforms.
NetherRealm has just announced that it will be conducting a closed online stress test for the game. Since then, the developer has confirmed it won’t be available on PC. The limited beta you can sign up for now will only be available for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The stress test is strictly to identify any potential issues with the game’s live stream, and will only be available from Friday, June 23rd to Monday, June 26th. Registration tests do not guarantee entry.
It’s also limited to players in North America, Latin America, Brazil, and Europe, and doesn’t support cross-play. If you are selected, you will receive an email on June 21st.
While it may be understandable for PC gamers to be excluded from the stress test, it doesn’t make sense that they would also miss out on the game’s beta. The beta will take place sometime in August and is advertised as a pre-order bonus – but only for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
That’s kind of silly, considering the PC version sells for $70, just like its console counterpart. If you want to play the voice of an imp here, you could say that NetherRealm just doesn’t want players digging into the game’s code and leaking upcoming fighters, or playing the game for longer than the developers expected (problems with Street Fighter 6 suffer from pre-release).
It’s also worth noting that the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 is not being developed in-house, but will be handled by QLOC, the studio that previously worked on Mortal Kombat 12 and Mortal Kombat X.
With all of this in mind, the PC is no longer the platform for fighting games to die for. Street Fighter 6 just set new sales and concurrent player records on Steam, far more than any Mortal Kombat game (previously the best-selling fighting game on PC).so although This is Launching a game on PC early is risky, and despite any potential issues, it shows commitment to the platform.
Mortal Kombat 1 is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch on September 19.
