Warner Bros. casually reveal Mortal Kombat 12 is coming this year

The difference between game and film reveals has always been funny to me. Game announcements are accompanied by million-dollar trailers, teased with reveals of reveals, and some fans tiptoe online to avoid the spoilers of a debut trailer. Meanwhile, films are often first revealed haphazardly through an excel sheet five years before they hit, or mentioned casually in an earnings call - which is exactly how Warner Bros. Discovery announced the existence of Mortal Kombat 12.

At last night’s WB earnings call, one of the company’s executives said “there’s lots more to come, including the highly anticipated Mortal Kombat 12 and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.” They continued to say that both games are “set to release this year, with ambitious launch projections.” There were no accompanying trailers, social media posts, or posters to celebrate the announcement, although MK's co-creator Ed Boon did tease fans with a Tweet that said, “So who has heard the news about Injustice 3?”

The existence of Mortal Kombat 12 is no surprise considering how successful the series has been lately, but developer Netherrealm had been alternating between MK and the DC superhero fighter Injustice. By that logic, Injustice 3 would have been next in line, but I reckon the rocky WB Discovery merger probably made that a risky proposition.

Either way, the next year is shaping up to have an all-star lineup of fighting games. Street Fighter 6 is releasing this June, and Tekken 8 could also come out in the same window.

Mortal Kombat wasn’t treated to a snazzy reveal trailer, but WB’s other big release Suicide Squad showed up to last night’s State Of Play show with a big presentation to confirm that, yes, this is another looter shooter, and yes, there’ll be a battle pass.