When Injustice Makes Its Return, It Has to Borrow a Mortal Kombat Strategy

Chief Creative Officer of NetherRealm Studios, Ed Boon, has been fairly open about the possibility of a third entry in the Injustice series. Back in June 2023, Boon mentioned to IGN that the door wasn’t closed on Injustice, and in July of this year, Boon told The Direct that he’d be surprised if NetherRealm never returned to the DC fighting series.

Though it might take some time, it seems very likely that a third Injustice game will happen, and when it does eventually release, there are a few key things it should learn from the two Mortal Kombat entries that have preceded it. One such lesson revolves around post-launch plans, with Mortal Kombat having adopted a new strategy in the last few years that would perfectly suit the Injustice series.

Story Expansions Are Becoming The Norm for Mortal Kombat

Since 2011’s Mortal Kombat, DLC has been a staple feature of the fighting game franchise. In Mortal Kombat 2011 and Mortal Kombat X, this DLC consisted of a handful of additional fighters, including the first wave of guest characters from horror franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, Predator, and Friday the 13th.

Mortal Kombat 11 continued this trend with its own post-launch support, adding series staples like Nightwolf and Shang Tsung, as well as guest fighters like The Joker, Spawn, and The Terminator. But about two months after Mortal Kombat 11‘s final Kombat Pack fighter released, NetherRealm dropped a new type of DLC for the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Titled “Aftermath,” Mortal Kombat 11‘s paid story expansion added three new fighters and a new 3-hour campaign. This short but sweet story acted as an epilogue to MK11‘s main campaign, following the battle between Fire God Liu Kang and Shang Tsung for Kronika’s Hourglass. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath reviewed fairly well, and all evidence suggests it also sold quite well, with NetherRealm having just repeated this post-launch plan for Mortal Kombat 1.

Mortal Kombat 1‘s Khaos Reigns expansion is just a day away from launch at the time of writing, and it seems to be following in its predecessor’s footsteps closely. Khaos Reigns will add a short epilogue campaign that follows Titan Havik’s attempt to disrupt the peace of Fire God Liu Kang’s new timeline. This expansion will also bring three new fighters at launch (Sektor, Cyrax, and Noob Saibot) and a further three guest fighters (T-1000, Conan, Ghostface) at a later date.

Generally speaking, this story expansion approach seems to be working out fairly well for NetherRealm, with it offering fans a brief continuation of the series’ story, some new fighters, and a tease of things to come. Though, the $50 asking price for Khaos Reigns might be a bit too steep for some fans.

Injustice 3 Could Benefit From a Post-Launch Story Expansion

Just like every version of the DC universe before it, the Injustice timeline is sprawling. Injustice includes characters from across the entire DC canon, from Earth-based heroes like Batman, to Greek gods like Ares, to aliens like Martian Manhunter, to magicians like Doctor Fate. This reverence for the wider DC universe is a core reason why fans love Injustice, but even a full-length fighting game and all its extra modes aren’t enough to give fans everything they want.

While the Injustice comic series has done a great job of exploring the wider universe and filling in some major gaps between entries, a story expansion in a similar vein to Aftermath and Khaos Reigns would be the best way to expand on the series’ story and character arcs, letting players directly control the action.