There is the reboot of Killer Instinct right now as well. Season 1 was made by Double Helix, and Season 2 is being made by Iron Galaxy, both of which are based in the US. There is also some smaller stuff like Skullgirls. Injustice kind of counts too, even if it is also made by NetherRealm.
Midway/NetherRealm are the only Western fighting game dev team that I can think of that have had continued success. Killer Instinct had those two original games and now the reboot, and was commercially successfully, but especially in regards to those original 2 games that didn't have much depth to them, I don't know that they're really considered a "big" fighting game franchise.
Skullgirls is also made by a Western dev team, but I wouldn't call it a big fighting game franchise. It got attention because it was pretty novel for a Western team to be making an anime fighter.
But for serious, the only three I can think of have been touched upon in the first reply. There might be one I'm forgetting, but that seems to be about it.
To be honest MK is only big sales wise, it drops off fast when it comes to the amount of players entering tournaments and playing online.
Maybe it will be different with MK9 but I distinctly remember the amount of competitors on MK9 halving within a few months.
I'm not sure exactly what it is that caused that with MK9, though I certainly don't think Netherrealm are very good at balancing their games.
Tis the sad truth. I'm not sure if was the problem or just one big problem among many, but the netcode was all sorts of terribad so playing online was often a frustrating experience for many. A lot of competitive players dropped it because there was quite literally no way to practice unless you could make it out to every single tourney or had a dedicated community in your area.
I think the fall off on MK9 was a mix of things, somewhat because of the balance, somewhat because of some scattershot, too-frequent patching.
As for Injustice, aside from Superman a bunch more balance issues over its life, it felt to me like a lot of the fall off there was because it wasn't Mortal Kombat. Like the bulk of that... kommunity couldn't muster the same passion for it.
I'm hoping that MKX is really good. MK9 was great, but you could tell they were really green when it came to understanding the guts of a properly competitive fighting game. Injustice filled in some of those holes (WOO! TRADES!) and showcased that they'd learned some lessons through a lot of general refinement. So I'm optimistic about MKX and don't think it's too far-fetched to hope that it's the best game they've made. Although I never played The Grid.
@sammo21: What was the issue? Not being required to actually download the DLC, thus fracturing the userbase? I recall they were pretty smart about it with Injustice by packing in free stuff like character skins with the compatibility packs.
@sammo21: It's weird that I don't remember that, but I can remember the massive stink that people kicked up about Street Fighter X Tekken having the DLC on the disc to avoid that problem. Maybe due to me being in Australia and it taking a while for MK9 to actually get a release here.
@damodar: yeah, the thing they could have done to fix this is include the DLC in game updates. I heard they have all that stuff worked out so we'll just see how well the netcode stacks up this time around.
@sammo21: The last gen consoles had very strict size limits on game updates. Especially on 360, where not everyone had a hard drive because one of the early SKU's didn't come with a HDD. That's why the DLC character's weren't just included in a patch.
That shouldn't be an issue this time around with the PS4, XB1 and PC releases.
@wilzyx: that's because fighting games are nitche titles in the west. They got played out about 15 years ago.
Because they're still stuck in the '90s. I like combat in which I can move in three dimensions and in which I'm not anchored to the opponent with the width of the picture. Fighting games are convoluted yet too limiting. Foot movement is important in any martial art, and letting the player move in only two directions greatly diminishes that aspect. Hack and slash games have large movesets and the cameras usually don't obscure the action. A camera like this of course wouldn't allow for shared screen versus, but I'd rather play with a LAN or online. I also want more complex level design that each combatant can use to their advantage. Until fighting games truly evolve, I'll continue to ignore them.
@ezekiel: Most games that have experimented with things like that have either ended up being bad or gimmicky fighting games or simply did not appeal to enough of an audience for anyone to heavily pursue. Games like Street Fighter and MK are still 2D because that's what sells and maintains a lasting player base.
Mortal Kombat spent like a decade experimenting with 3D fighters and weird mechanics, but they were almost universally panned. There's something to be said for the fact that MK9 stopped being total garbage with their return to 2D fighting.
I would actually like to see some of that stuff you mentioned in a game someday, but I'm not confident anyone is going to pull it off in an existing fighting game franchise. Somebody is going to have to create something new that has no legacy or expectations, so that what they're creating does not have to fit within the confines of a "fighting game".
@itwongo: Pretty certain it's not. They have countless fighters like it over there, there's not much to make it stand out, even if it's good. Especially since it's not available in arcades. Arcades are where the fighting scene is at in Japan.
@ezekiel: The Soul Caliber series has that 3d movement you're asking about. Also the way you talk about foot movement makes me feel you have some misconceptions about 2d fighting games. Movement and positioning play really important roles in the kind of strategy you are using and how you act/react to what the other player is doing. In the good 2d fighters, there's so much strategy in the movement options, that it makes some games with full 3D movement seem shallow.
But anyway, like I said before, Soul Caliber is really good and has full 3D movement, but 2D fighters have a lot of depth if you take the time to get good at them.
@ezekiel: Most games that have experimented with things like that have either ended up being bad or gimmicky fighting games or simply did not appeal to enough of an audience for anyone to heavily pursue. Games like Street Fighter and MK are still 2D because that's what sells and maintains a lasting player base.
Mortal Kombat spent like a decade experimenting with 3D fighters and weird mechanics, but they were almost universally panned. There's something to be said for the fact that MK9 stopped being total garbage with their return to 2D fighting.
I would actually like to see some of that stuff you mentioned in a game someday, but I'm not confident anyone is going to pull it off in an existing fighting game franchise. Somebody is going to have to create something new that has no legacy or expectations, so that what they're creating does not have to fit within the confines of a "fighting game".
@ezekiel: The Soul Caliber series has that 3d movement you're asking about. Also the way you talk about foot movement makes me feel you have some misconceptions about 2d fighting games. Movement and positioning play really important roles in the kind of strategy you are using and how you act/react to what the other player is doing. In the good 2d fighters, there's so much strategy in the movement options, that it makes some games with full 3D movement seem shallow.
But anyway, like I said before, Soul Caliber is really good and has full 3D movement, but 2D fighters have a lot of depth if you take the time to get good at them.
I meant for the camera to be behind the character, which would offer more room to fight. That's why I talked about hack and slash games. I know foot movement is important in 2D fighters, but you're still far more restricted by the dimensions and the width of the picture. I don't enjoy fighting games as they are, but I can play a few PvP rounds of FromSoftware's Souls games, even if the combat isn't that good.
@itwongo: Pretty certain it's not. They have countless fighters like it over there, there's not much to make it stand out, even if it's good. Especially since it's not available in arcades. Arcades are where the fighting scene is at in Japan.
Skullgirls is actually getting a Japanese arcade port. It's been in the works for a while now. But yeah, the game isn't that popular anywhere. :(
@dudeglove: Despite some similar terminology they couldn't be any more different to actually play. I enjoy the Souls games a lot but I see no crossover where I might start playing Street Fighter because movement input is so drastically different. Executing combos is a lot more complex than fighting even the hardest Souls enemy.
@dudeglove: Probably because there is no practical way for a group of players to play together. You can't just meet other players locally and set up a game with your character builds in a LAN in a lag free environment. You have set up all the PvP stuff through the game's online matchmaking system. I would also say that you cannot even search for and play with specific players online, but I haven't played Bloodborne and I heard that it has some password system that might do just that.
Has anyone even tried setting up online tournaments with these games, with a bracket and everything? As far as I know the closest scenarios are when players congregate for fight clubs.
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