Ed Boon cheekily responds to 'ridiculous' rumor that Killer Instinct 2 is being made by NetherRealm Studios
Where's the fire, Chief Thunder?
With rumors popping up now and again that a new Killer Instinct sequel is in development, fighting game fans have been extremely curious as to who could be making it — so why not the studio behind the best-selling western fighter series?
IGN Senior Features Producer Destin Legarie recently spoke online about a "ridiculous" rumor that NetherRealm Studios, famous for the Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, is currently working on Killer Instinct 2, which actually got MK Co-creator Ed Boon to respond (in a cheeky manner).
"My favorite rumor/joke that I've seen swirling around is that @noobde and NetherRealm are working on Killer Instinct 2 and while that is absolutely ridiculous I wouldn't be mad if it was true," wrote Legarie on Twitter.
This prompted IGN's Executive Editor (and former Xbox Editor) Ryan McCaffrey to chime in that KI has about 10% of Mortal Kombat or Injustice, meaning it's probably never going to happen, but Legarie says he'd settle for Saberwulf as a guest fighter in their next game.
That discussion was apparently enough to get Ed Boon to pop his head into the thread and simply respond "Xbox exclusive fighter!" with a thumbs up, which doesn't clear things up at all.
Boon is of course well known for his trolling and misdirection with fans online, so there's probably little to take overtly seriously from his statement here.
We presume he's just talking about an Xbox exclusive character for MK or Injustice like they previously did with PlayStation and Kratos, but it's Ed Boon (so who truly knows).
Rumors have been swirling since at least last year in which industry insiders are claiming a new Killer Instinct entry is in development at Microsoft though it's unknown who the team supposedly working on it is.
One more recent rumor suggested that Tekken developer Bandai Namco may be involved in the next KI, but again all parties have remained silent on the prospect thus far.
As for NetherRealm, there is a strong chance they will reveal what the team is cooking up next sometime in 2022 after abruptly announcing that Mortal Kombat 11 had finished development a year ago.
The studio has faced its own list of rumors over that period of time suggesting that the MK makers could be working on anything from a Marvel Comics title to prioritizing Mortal Kombat 12 over Injustice 3.
Like McCaffrey stated, the difference in scale and scope of Mortal Kombat compared to Killer Instinct is one that has us believe that the only way NRS would be primarily developing the game is if Microsoft purchased them — which their potential sale has also been floating around the rumor mill.
If a new Killer Instinct is coming soon, our best chance to see it will be next week when Microsoft holds their Xbox and Bethesda Showcase slated to make announcements on June 12.
