A credible Mortal Kombat 1 insider has said that the fighting game won’t be getting any additional DLC after Kombat Pack 2 is complete. In the lead-up to MK1, NetherRealm Studios said that it was planning to support the game for a longer period of time than it did with the previous entry, Mortal Kombat 11. As such, some players presumed that multiple story expansions and Kombat Packs could come to MK1 in the years after its arrival. And while this seems to have previously been the plan at NetherRealm, it sounds like the performance of Khaos Reigns has led those at the studio to change course.
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According to insider Fate Unknown, who has had a number of accurate scoops related to Mortal Kombat 1, NetherRealm recently canceled its plans for a third Kombat Pack and a second story expansion. This means that once Kombat Pack 2 is finished in early 2025 with the release of the T-1000 and Conan the Barbarian, MK1 should be done with its paid, premium content drops. Future Kameo fighters were said to potentially still be released down the road, but other than this, all other DLC plans are claimed to have been scrapped.
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“Kombat Pack 3 and a second story expansion were planned. All canceled recently,” the insider said in a thread on Reddit. “No more characters after Kombat Pack 2. A Kameo or two might make it since there has been work done on them but I don’t know yet.”
As for the reason behind this decision, Fate Unknown says it’s because Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns “sold poorly”. Upon its launch back in September, Mortal Kombat fans criticized the cost of Khaos Reigns as it was being sold for $49.99 at a minimum. While this expansion did also contain the entirety of Kombat Pack 2 and its six additional fighters, many players found the DLC to be too expensive, especially given that MK1 had only just been released one year prior.
Early signs of Khaos Reigns underperforming were seen at the start of November when NetherRealm and WB Games hit the Mortal Kombat 1 DLC with a big price cut. This sale was particularly unusual as it had come about a little more than a month after Khaos Reigns had launched. Many assumed that this quick sale meant that the DLC wasn’t selling well, and based on what we’ve now heard, this assumption seems to have been accurate.
Moving forward, NetherRealm will not be abandoning Mortal Kombat 1 at any time soon. As mentioned, the T-1000 Terminator and Conan the Barbarian still have to be released as part of Kombat Pack 2 to fulfill the studio’s current DLC obligations. After this, MK1 will likely still receive more updates to balance the game and fix other problems that players discover over time. As 2025 begins to progress, though, it sounds like NetherRealm will begin to turn its attention to its next game, which director Ed Boon told us recently has been in the works since 2021.