The confusion regarding which Unreal Engine Mortal Kombat 11 is built on has been finally solved. Earlier, many people thought that the game is being developed on Unreal Engine 4, however, recent tweets from Jon Greenberg, graphics programming lead at NRS, stated that the game is indeed built on UE3 instead of UE4.
Mortal Kombat 11, as the title suggests, is the eleventh iteration in the Mortal Kombat franchise. The game will be coming to all major platforms including PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. Having its roots in 1992, the Mortal Kombat Franchise has been growing for 25 years. The Mortal Kombat Saga continues with the eleventh iteration of the game and takes off where the prequel ended in terms of story.
As with all Mortal Kombat games, the eleventh part is no different when it comes to raw violence. The game will feature detailed close-ups of bone-shattering and blood splashing animations.
The game was announced at Game Awards last year and since then the devs have shown the gameplay to the world in various videos. MK11 is looking up to be a great addition to the franchise.
Mortal Kombat 11 Is Built On Custom Unreal Engine 3 Not UE4, Confirmed by NRS
Earlier today, Jon Greenberg posted a tweet alluding to the confusion regarding which Unreal Engine the game is built on. As mentioned earlier, many people were under the impression that the game uses UE4, however, as confirmed by the graphics programming lead at NeatherRealm Studios, the game is developed using UE3.
To whoever keeps changing the Mortal Kombat 11 Wikipedia page to claim the game uses UE4… while I appreciate the intention and while we take this as a compliment, MK11 is built on NRS's custom UE3 version. And yes, our ver of UE3 is radically different from Epic's at this pt.
— Jon Greenberg (@Jontology) March 5, 2019
Jon Greenberg has stated in his tweet that the game uses a customized version of UE3. He also mentioned that NRS’ version of the UE4 is radically different from EpicGame’s, the makers of UE3.
It seems that people have been editing MK11’s Wikipedia page to mention that the game is built on UE4. Jon Greenberg played this off as a compliment meaning that NRS has full confidence in their version of the UE3.
UE4 is arguably one of the most stable and well-optimized game engines out there right now, however, it is not an easy transition for game developers to jump to another version of the Engine as told by Jon Greenberg in answer to a question.
The real answer is long and pretty complicated. The short version: evolving our engine let us start working on the game the day IJ2 was completed rather than making the team wait while we rebuilt everything (years and years worth of stuff, much of which we would need) in UE4.
— Jon Greenberg (@Jontology) March 6, 2019
What Are The Implications for Nintendo Switch?
Commenters were quick to point out that Nintendo Switch does not support UE3. However, as mentioned earlier, MK11 is based on a modified version of UE3 so ideally it shouldn’t have any problems running on Switch. People are, however, a little skeptical about MK11’s performance on Switch when it comes out.
Moreover, Jon also stated that the mobile version of the game is being built on UE4.
Mortal Kombat 11 Release Date
The game will be releasing on April 23rd, 2019 across PS4, Xbox One, Windows and Nintendo Switch. You can, however, preorder the game if you wish. There are essentially two versions of the game, the standard edition that costs $59.99 and the Premium edition that costs $99.99. You can preorder the game from here for PC.
Let me know your thoughts regarding MK11 in the comments below.