What's the deal with Killer Instinct? Bandai Namco may be involved in a Killer Instinct sequel

Gaming
1

image
image800×450 61.6 KB

In December, it was revealed that Microsoft had hired Mortal Kombat veteran Erin Piepergerdes to be an executive producer for Xbox Game Studios. Piepergerdes has worked on Mortal Kombat all the way back to the Midway Games days, and later Netherrealm at Warner Bros. It stands to reason that, if you were interested in building a fighting game franchise, that you might hire someone like Piepergerdes to oversee it.

I have also heard the vaguest of unsubstantiated rumors that one of Bandai Namco’s fighting game development teams may be involved, although I haven’t been able to independently verify that yet myself. Previously speaking at an event, someone at Xbox told me that finding a studio or building a team with the specific expertise to make a fighting game was difficult. Naturally, Bandai Namco is responsible for franchises like Soulcalibur and Tekken, and has even contributed to Smash Bros. Ultimate as well. It would make sense to get them involved if indeed Microsoft is exploring reviving the classic fighter.

Killer Instinct dreams are still alive.

10 Likes
2

Eh could see it. Only so many studios you would trust with bringing this back.

1 Like
3

Jez’s wording doesn’t give much confidence in it being Bamco

But there’s only a very small number of fighting studios out there and they seem to have a decent relationship with xbox this gen so who knows

2 Likes
4

I’m not sure if I can see it. Would be hilarious though, if the next Xbox Publishing game from Japan would be Killer Instinct.

1 Like
5

To be honest, BN did come to mind when Nick first brought it up the other day.

6

Gotta wonder would it be Sakurai? He did post on his Twitter that he bought an Xbox recently. Maybe researching KI?

7

While BN did help Sora develop Smash Bros. Ultimate, I don’t believe they own them.

8

Sora LTD is Sakurai’s independent company. The only 2 employees of his company are Him and his wife. Bandai Namco did the bulk of the development work with sakurai directing the game as essentially a contractor, more or less.

2 Likes
9

Wait for real? It’s just him and his wife. And Nintendo trusts him enough to do that? That’s wild, I mean good for him. But wow

10

@Cayde4Ever He’s a rare genius apparently.

Concerning the rumour, I don’t see a japanese team making a FG for Xbox, but I can be wrong.

11

Exactly. So, I doubt he’d work on KI.

12

Sakurai isn’t making KI lmfao, yall gotta forget about that.

1 Like
13

I mean its nothing really special? They dont do the main development work, the team at bandai does, sakurai just directs them. Its basically just standard development with an extra step

1 Like
14

I mean can you think of another situation like that where it’s a two person private company team who’s in charge of the main team with probably 100+ bodies. I can’t

15

I mean its unique but ultimately it changes nothing in the grand scheme of game development. Sakurai went into the bandai namco offices to work as the game director, he’s essentially just a freelance one.

16

Think of Sakurai as a freelancer with a brand and it’ll all make sense. The freelancer is (or was) just in a long ass contract in this case, that’s all.

1 Like
17

Bruh lol, alright we’ll just leave there

18

Probably one of the Namco teams that makes those anime fighters? I doubt the people behind Tekken or Soulcalibur would have anything to do with it. Killer Instinct badly needs to come back though.

1 Like
19

I think they usually outsource those to CyberConnect2 and Spike Chunsoft (probably their two most common fighter partners in recent years iirc).

20

Sakurai just sounds like a contractor/consultant. Just happens to be at the top of the chain and not a worker bee.

Kinda like how Mark Cerny isn’t even an employee at Sony.

1 Like