Mortal Kombat Creator Explains Lack of Xbox 360 Exclusive Fighter

Mortal Kombat is now being released all over the world on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but only PS3 gamers are receiving a bonus fighter in the form of God of War's Kratos, so franchise co-creator Ed Boon has now explained the lack of a similar offer on the Xbox 360 console.

The new Mortal Kombat game has been eagerly awaited for quite some time, with fans of the long-running series hoping that they will receive a proper, M-rated fighting experience, reminiscent of the old arcade titles that made the franchise so popular.

Now, the game is being released all over the world this week, so series co-creator and lead designed on the new Mortal Kombat title, Ed Boon, talked with Eurogamer about the lack of an Xbox 360 exclusive fighter.

For those who forgot, PlayStation 3 owners have an extra fighter in the Mortal Kombat roster, in the form of Kratos, from Sony's hit God of War franchise.

Boon revealed that while he couldn't go into specifics, the decision to scrap a Xbox 360 exclusive fighter wasn't up to his studio.

"Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't allow us to make a 360 exclusive," Boon said. "I'm not allowed to talk too much about it, but I can tell you we certainly wanted to do an exclusive for 360, but that's all I can say. It was not a decision we made where we said, oh, let's not do one for the 360."

Boon went on to name a few characters that might have fit the role of a bonus fighter, saying that the Xbox 360 has plenty of exclusive franchises that could yield some interesting combatants.

"Anybody who's really knowledgeable about the Xbox video games, the big titles, names like Master Chief from Halo, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, and any other Xbox exclusive title, is going to come up in a conversation in talking about it. So clearly we've discussed it," said Boon.

As you can see, while Ed Boon and his team at NetherRealm might have wanted to get a fighter for the Xbox 360 version of Mortal Kombat, things just weren't meant to be.

Mortal Kombat is now available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America, while European gamers can get their hands on it tomorrow, on April 21.