Ed Boon confirms that convincing video of Mortal Kombat 4 being unlocked in Arcade1Up's MK 30th anniversary cabinet is fake
Fans have been pushing to see a revival of the Mortal Kombat franchise's first foray into the 3D space, Mortal Kombat 4. Much like we saw with the "#FreeMvC2" movement, a "#FreeMK4" hashtag was recently created and is being used to try and persuade both NetherRealm Studios and Arcade1Up to release a full home cabinet for the title.
Content creator ConsoleFanboy released a video over the weekend that claims to demonstrate how to unlock and access Mortal Kombat 4 within Arcade1Up's Mortal Kombat 30th anniversary machine. As convincing as the video is, Mortal Kombat series co-creator Ed Boon has stepped forward to confirm that the video is indeed fake.
"Don't shoot the messenger.... but this is fake," Boon began on Twitter. "Well done, but fake. Notice the screen reflection goes away when the MK4 screen comes up. The #FreeMK4 kampaign kontinues."
The video on Twitter Boon responded to was from a friend of ConsoleFanboy, who also created their own footage showing Fanboy's mock method in action.
As Ed points out, a subtle change can be seen in the screen when Mortal Kombat 4 boots up, which proves it's not authentic. That being said, you have to look fairly closely to spot it.
ConsoleFanboy uploaded a YouTube version of the video as well, and the video's details have a lot of messaging that says "100% REAL" and "NOT CLICKBAIT," all while encouraging others to try it themselves. It can be hard to hear tone online, and in actuality the creator was being tongue-in-cheek here with the messaging, which further confirms it was all in jest.
The video's creator did, however, put together a legitimate video in which they got several of the voice actors from Mortal Kombat to send a message to Arcade1Up in support of #FreeMK4.
Kerri Hoskins Branson (Sonya Blade in MK3/MK4), John Turk (Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung, more in MK3/MK4), Richard Divizio (Kano in multiple titles plus Baraka in MK2 and Kabal, Noob Saibot in MK3), and original Johnny Cage and ninja actor Daniel Pesina all joined in to share some words with John Diamonon, Senior Vice President of Licensing and Business Development at Arcade1Up.
As of right now, we haven't heard of any official plans for Arcade1Up to release an actual Mortal Kombat 4 home arcade cabinet. However, #FreeMK4 continues to chug along, and the parties who could make it a reality are certainly aware of the demand now.
Don't shoot the messenger.... but this is fake. Well done, but fake. Notice the screen reflection goes away when the MK4 screen comes up.
— Ed Boon (@noobde) February 2, 2023
The #FreeMK4 kampaign kontinues. https://t.co/JvhKpxr4mw
