Sure, but for every Under Night, there’s a DNF Duel that comes in well under the likes of MK. Even if the trend line is going down for NRS, it’s still consistently high enough to track, and the era post-MK9 has done better than pre-. MK1 was supposed to be the one they supported long-term, like their competitors do, to hone in on that better game, but it misfired. A misfire for MK is still better financially than Street Fighter or Tekken on most good days, and it can be attributed to many things (only new gen hardware, rushed out the door, no advance beta to work on system mechanics, a total misread of the audience’s interest in kameos, etc.), but this wasn’t the one. Rumor has it Injustice 3 is around the corner, and like the Sonic cycle, fans will hope this is the one where they nail it, but I think people keep hoping that because they’re not far off from being able to do so.

It’s frustrating too, because other than maybe their attitude toward unblockables in their core systems design, they never seem to make the same mistakes twice. I don’t think any WB shakeup has a high chance of improving the NRS situation, but regardless of one, they’d be crazy not to keep a regular release cadence. Their single player and couch multiplayer experiences have been superb, head and shoulders above their competition, for a long time now, and people show up to pay for that. (But I’m grouchy that they replaced the Krypt with the significantly worse Invasions mode.)