Look, it sucks when the games we buy don't work as intended. It's almost worse when a game that used to work just fine actually becomes broken for one reason or another. That's been the case with Mortal Kombat lately, which was working just fine online for awhile, but now that there's DLC and "klassic" skins packs out there to purchase, things have gone way, way sideways.

The problem, apparently, lies in the classic skins that came as part of various retailer-specific pre-order packages. If you downloaded these back in April and have them on your system, every game you attempt to join will, if my experience is any indication, totally fail to stay connected. According to a post on the game's official forums, a patch is in the works to fix this issue once and for all. However, you can do your part today by simply deleting and redownloading any of those individual skins that you might have on your Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 was also suffering from this issue, but it looks like a patch is already available there that fixes this. I assume you could also just delete the skins if you've purchased that skins pack that came out awhile back, but I haven't tried that.

I'm mostly posting this information because getting it from the official site is something of a nightmare. Even a direct link to the thread would just throw the site's age gate in your face, following by a redirect to the homepage. Super annoying! This seems like the sort of info that they'd want to blast out onto the homepage of the site and the in-game Message of the Day, since it's an issue that effectively makes the game unplayable online, and both players in a match need to have performed this fix to make it work.

So, do your part. Go redownload those skins, and while you're at it, download all of the compatibility packs for the DLC characters. Because the other incredibly frustrating part of the process is that those are optional downloads, so if the person you're playing with hasn't grabbed those packs or purchased the three available downloadable characters, you can't use the characters you've paid for! Insane, right? This one can't be laid at the feet of the developers, though. This one's an issue with Microsoft's rules regarding maximum patch sizes, I believe. Stuff like this is what makes me want the next generation of consoles to come sooner rather than later. Hopefully they'll be able to guarantee hard drives in all machines next time and force multiplayer patches down to all players to keep everyone running the same stuff at the same time.

Oh, also, Rain is available today. He's pretty crazy, I bet the combo videos will be nuts.

Look, it sucks when the games we buy don't work as intended. It's almost worse when a game that used to work just fine actually becomes broken for one reason or another. That's been the case with Mortal Kombat lately, which was working just fine online for awhile, but now that there's DLC and "klassic" skins packs out there to purchase, things have gone way, way sideways.

The problem, apparently, lies in the classic skins that came as part of various retailer-specific pre-order packages. If you downloaded these back in April and have them on your system, every game you attempt to join will, if my experience is any indication, totally fail to stay connected. According to a post on the game's official forums, a patch is in the works to fix this issue once and for all. However, you can do your part today by simply deleting and redownloading any of those individual skins that you might have on your Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 was also suffering from this issue, but it looks like a patch is already available there that fixes this. I assume you could also just delete the skins if you've purchased that skins pack that came out awhile back, but I haven't tried that.

I'm mostly posting this information because getting it from the official site is something of a nightmare. Even a direct link to the thread would just throw the site's age gate in your face, following by a redirect to the homepage. Super annoying! This seems like the sort of info that they'd want to blast out onto the homepage of the site and the in-game Message of the Day, since it's an issue that effectively makes the game unplayable online, and both players in a match need to have performed this fix to make it work.

So, do your part. Go redownload those skins, and while you're at it, download all of the compatibility packs for the DLC characters. Because the other incredibly frustrating part of the process is that those are optional downloads, so if the person you're playing with hasn't grabbed those packs or purchased the three available downloadable characters, you can't use the characters you've paid for! Insane, right? This one can't be laid at the feet of the developers, though. This one's an issue with Microsoft's rules regarding maximum patch sizes, I believe. Stuff like this is what makes me want the next generation of consoles to come sooner rather than later. Hopefully they'll be able to guarantee hard drives in all machines next time and force multiplayer patches down to all players to keep everyone running the same stuff at the same time.

Oh, also, Rain is available today. He's pretty crazy, I bet the combo videos will be nuts.

So time to get the DLC then?

I still don't get why it doesn't prompt what save device you want to use on the xbox version upon start-up. 
 
So far that's messed me up a few times.

Pity they're having so many problems. Awesome game.

At least the DLC with Super Street Fighter IV works. Harharharharharharharharharharharharharharharharharharhahrharhahrharhhrhrhraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

In all seriousness though, that totally sucks ass. Thought about playing it later today so I will definitely do that.

I haven't played MK in awhile, this has reminded me to pop it in.

@JJOR64: Now, now.

I dun have Xbox Live, but I may end up doing it anyway?

is it just me or does this seem unnecessarily complicated? was the intent to make a playable game between two players online so complicated it would ultimately force people just to pony up for the dlc? the only reason i doubt how "unintentional" these snafus have become has to do with the overall experience and competency of the developers and publishers involved. this isn't their first rodeo, so what gives with the amateurish b.s.?

@KingPossum said:

I still don't get why it doesn't prompt what save device you want to use on the xbox version upon start-up. So far that's messed me up a few times.

Because everyone agreed that was the absolute worst trend ever and Ed Boon didn't want his game to be a piece of shit.

crZY 

I really can't understand why there's such a desyncing problem when it comes to the pre-order skins. They're already on the disk. Everyone with the game has them, they just either needed the pre-order codes or need to DL the classic skin pack to get them unlocked (which I will admit, even though I bought it for both systems, paying $5 for something already on the disk is a bit wrong, the skins should have been a free DL to unlock).  
 
As for the problems with people not downloading the free classic skin packs that have the compatibility updates... well, that's on them. They're free and have classic skins to use; so why wouldn't you? But I have played people on both systems that didn't do it, which then made either Kenshi or Skarlet unavailable to me.

Thanks for the message, Jeff. My games been randomly freezing up every time it tries to connect online, hopefully this fixes that problem.

I still don't get why it doesn't prompt what save device you want to use on the xbox version upon start-up.  So far that's messed me up a few times.

Still no Rain here yet. can't wait though.

so in other words, make your website SUPER annoying to navigate, and journalists will give you free press!

Man this makes me want to jump back into MK but then I remember I lost my save with all my progress and unlocked characters and I feel like crying...

@HatKing: people like that existed long before there was a quest to reward them for it.

So I just got a patch today on PS3, played for about an hour, no drops or desynchs, and a few matches I couldnt use my DLC or Free Skins (but I could use the klassic ones?) So I guess they got that problem fixed, i guess it's just an issue of making sure EVERYONE can use EVERYBODY they paid for. And the story going around the webs is that the MS patch restrictions prevent them from being a mandatory thing, if that is the case... that is kinda lame.

I don't know if it ever worked "just fine" online. Maybe it's because I read SRK and stuff, but people hate the online portion of the game.
From my experience it was always very laggy and gave you alot of disconnects even without this thing pushing it to the extreme.

Selfish people who don't download the FREE compatibility packs piss me off.   If everyone would just download it we would have no problems everything would flow and I wouldn't have to think  "Gosh, I hope this guy has the compat back for the new DLC I just bought..." 
 
Having to go OUT of my way to use the stuff I purchased is what is irking me.

I got rid of my Mortal Kombat a long time ago. Mostly because I just suck at it. But shit like this makes me mad. Seriously, is there no QA at game studios anymore?

Don't you mean next generation Konsoles

Time to kick butt as rain.

After being away for a few weeks while the new chars were coming out, I apparently managed to install/patch things in the wrong order and ended up with the game crashing before title screen =/ Had the same kinda nightmare of trying to find any info on what the problem was etc. Would think that most big titles these days should manage to arrange it so if you search for "game title forum" on google the first choice would be to an official forum where you can get technical assistance.

Crazy Rain combos like this?   

this is one of the reasons i stopped playing this game online this and playing boring spammers

I think the real winners here are those that didn't buy Mortal Kombat 9 ;) 
 
If this were any other game, Jeff would be cynically disparaging about it tell you not to play it/buy it. I hate biased journalism.

@Jeff: Do I have to delete my actual pre-ordered costume? Or just the the ones I got from downloading the compatibility pack?

And if this does indeed fix the problem, can we expect this for TNT every week?

Traded in my copy a while ago. The online portion of the game has never worked right and was always horribly laggy whenever I was able to connect with someone to play. Glad I only paid $40 for it on Amazon a couple weeks after it came out. 
And why is this Microsoft's fault? I've bought a lot of DLC in the past and have had games updated 100's of times and haven't had any of the problems with those other titles that I had with MK9. I put the blame squarely on NRS. Too bad too since I did enjoy what little I got to play of it. Oh-well.

"This one can't be laid at the feet of the developers, though. This one's an issue with Microsoft's rules regarding maximum patch sizes, I believe." 
 
Did MS make Netherealm release DLC that doesn't work?  Patch size or other limitations wouldn't be an issue if the developer got it right the first time because it wouldn't need a patch.  

Thanks for blasting this Jeff! On a PS3, so this hasn't effected me in a few weeks. But it sucks to hear the 360 folk are getting a bit screwed ---the most dedicated even more so. That can't be good for any MK player. 
 
Hopefully MS and NRS do a better job alerting folks about and correcting this slop, themselves.

Fuck double standards.

I think the real winners here are those that didn't buy Mortal Kombat 9 ;)

is this giving anyone else flashbacks to that video jeff made about capcom vs. snk 2 for the xbox

And did Jeff just try to blame Microsoft for this? Have you ever booted up Bad Company 2 recently? I have about 3 GBs worth of title updates on my hdd. So no, this is the fault of the developers.

Download your compatibility packs!

@thwak said:

@Lukeweizer: Yes you need to delete the content, but since it's tied to your account you can just redownload it again.

Geez. Having to delete pre-order content to fix bugs? That's intense.

sadly that patch size issue will keep on going on the WiiU as that it looks like it only going to have like 8gb of flash memory (this just talk though) but if its true I can't see nintendo allowing full game patches or large downloadable games out. Personally I don't think they will stay with 8Gb at 1080p graphics even downloadable small games will eat up that space in no time.

MS has nothing to do with this. NRS are just completely shit at releasing patches. They're worse than Blizzard because at least you can still play WoW when a patch goes sideways. It doesn't just boot you and make you jump through fucking hoops to play. (Completely beside the point since why would you play WoW anyway, right?)
 
MK's had garbage online almost from day 1 and NRS has done fuck-all to fix it. They literally do not give a shit. They want your money and that's all. From the minute they said "No, Boon lied, we want money for on-disc DLC after all," I said "Fuck those lying cocksuckers." I haven't looked back since and that's been the correct path to take. Why play a game that doesn't work whose developer has no interest of fixing it? Or, at the very least, doesn't deem the issue worthy enough to fix QUICKLY. Sorry, I'm not redownloading shit. How about YOU fix your godawful online. That sounds reasonable to me. Funny how Street Fighter can do this shit smoothly, but MK keeps shitting the bed and wondering where the stink is coming from. 
 
Stop supporting Netherrealm, basically. They've proven, for MONTHS now, that they have no interest in fixing their online. They're grabbing for your money and that's it. Fuck them.

I like how I can (mostly) tell who has written an article just by reading it. :)

Freaking MS. On one hand I feel like they have the best online service by far for current consoles, on the other, this totally fucking sucks. Took me an hour to find a single game the worked the other day. I almost want to give up playing MK because of all the online issues.

@Slaker117 said:

I almost want to give up playing MK because of all the online issues.

I haven't played it online since the first week. The connection issues are just too severe to cope with.

Sad. Because I play the shit out of this game offline.

@sofacitysweetheart said:

And did Jeff just try to blame Microsoft for this? Have you ever booted up Bad Company 2 recently? I have about 3 GBs worth of title updates on my hdd. So no, this is the fault of the developers.

Those are compatibility updates, not patches.

@sofacitysweetheart said:

And did Jeff just try to blame Microsoft for this? Have you ever booted up Bad Company 2 recently? I have about 3 GBs worth of title updates on my hdd. So no, this is the fault of the developers.

Those are compatibility updates, not patches.

I will do this. Thanks for making an effort to get the info out there. 
 
However, this is easily just as much Neatherrealm's fault as it is Microsof't's. Besides the obvious fact it was their error that is causing this to begin with, if they didn't feel the need to charge for retro costumes and just included them on the disc in the first place this wouldn't have happened.