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Killer Instinct gets a major update after years of silence

Could this be a good sign for fans of the iconic fighting game?
Jonas Mäki Editor Sweden 19 May 2023

Killer Instinct was one of the games released together with Xbox One, and proved to be a really well-made fighter with a fresh take on the free-to-play concept.

It was fleshed out over several seasons and also got a bunch of major guest characters like the Arbiter from Halo, General RAAM from Gears of War and Rash from Battletoads. It became so popular in the fighting community that it was added to the EVO tournament, but since six years ago, we haven't received any more content and interest in game has faded.

Therefore it's quite surprising to see at pretty major updater for Killer Instinct, something that will make it last for the foreseeable future. The team explains:

"Over the last five years, however, it has become more challenging to deal with issues that crop up due to KI's reliance on legacy services. We have been working on solutions to address these concerns. Thank you for being patient and amazing fans through any bumps in the road.

We have started migrating KI's legacy services to PlayFab services, a process which will happen over the next several months. This is a quality-of-life (QOL) update and does not have any new content or tuning changes: it ensures the game you know and love continues to provide the best possible player experience."

While the fans most certainly will appreciate this, it's quite surprising to see Killer Instinct getting this love after ten years since the game was released. As there have been talks about a new installation in the series (Iron Galaxy Studios says they would like to do it, and Bandai Namco is rumored to be working on it already), this could be a way to keep the community happy and showing that the franchise hasn't been forgotten.

Editor Sweden Jonas Mäki has written for Gamereactor since 2002, becoming an editor in 2007. He covers the video game industry across news, releases and the business side, with a particular interest in sales figures and where the industry is heading.
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