A rumor has started making the rounds that a new Killer Instinct game is in development, though exactly who is doing it (or if the rumors are even true) remains to be seen. If it is true, however, it would be a good thing for the fighting game community.
The leak comes from Nick Baker of the XboxEra podcast, who claims he has sources that the game is currently in “active development”, though as we said above, he has no idea of who the developer is. However, he’s fairly sure that it’s not NetherRealm.
Killer Instinct in its most modern incarnation first came out in 2013 as an Xbox One exclusive, one of the console’s launch titles. It rapidly became a huge success, being supported throughout most of the console’s run not just with normal Killer Instinct characters, but also a number of guest characters such as General RAAM from Gears of War, the Arbiter from Halo, and Rash from Battletoads.
If the new Killer Instinct game actually does exist, it would be a welcome newcomer to players of the original game. Of course, that still leaves the question of who is developing it. The original game went through two developers during its lifetime, starting out at Double Helix Games and later being given to Iron Galaxy.
While NetherRealm Studios is one of the greats at developing fighting games, they may have their hands full with other fighting games at the moment. It’s unlikely that other companies known for fighting games, such as Capcom or Bandai-Namco, would develop a competitor.
If the new Killer Instinct game ends up going back to Iron Galaxy, however, hopefully they can make the game just as good, if not better, than the previous entry was. Of course, at the same time, we’ll likely have to wait for Microsoft to confirm whether or not Baker’s sources are actually telling the truth.