January 26. 2003

MK: Deadly Alliance sells 1 million copies
Just as the title says, MK: Deadly Alliance just recently sold over 1 million copies in the United States alone as of the first of the new year.  A press release put out my Midway confirms this data, and it is very good to know that it only took about a month and a half to sell this many copies of the game on the 4 platforms it was released for.  And, as a top contender for the title of best fighting game of the year, the fact that MK:DA has been a landmark for Midway is only stressed even more.  I guess this makes MK:DA a classic game for the future... nice.

Microsoft to buy Midway?
Back on January 2nd, we reported that Midway may be up for sale because it is in financial trouble.  To follow up on this bit of info, MK5.org was first to report that Midway may actually be bought out by Microsoft.  A recent press release from Crain's Chicago Business mentions how Microsoft would prosper from a buy like this because of Midway's sports game presence and success with MK: Deadly Alliance.  Now, the article does not say that this deal is definately going through; rather, it is just the company's opinion.  Who knows what the outcome will be, but if MK:DA became an Xbox exclusive, that would be... weird.

MK Empire celebrates 5 years strong!
The MK Empire as you know it today celebrated its 5th anniversary on January 15th, sweeeet!

New poll up
After leaving it up for a few months, the old poll is now ready to be replaced.  The question was "What aspect of MK: DA are you most looking forward to?"  Out of a total of 101 votes, the leading three answers were 1.) The whole game (52 votes) 2.) Storylines (17 votes) 3.) Gore (12 votes).  Well, it's needless to say that "The whole game" answer was a good choice.  But now, the next poll is inspired by an article I read up on at The Mortal Kombat Netherealm, and it asks "What is the best MK site of all time?"  Now no, the MK Empire is not an option, but I really want to see what people think of both present as well as past classic MK sites.  So, think hard and vote here to make your opinions heard!

New test #18
After a long time of not knowing what the hell was wrong with the last test, I have finally fixed the html problem and updated the test section with the new test.  The question to be answered in Test #18 is "In MK: Deadly Alliance, who has Shang Tsung hired to protect him?"  So, if you think you know the answer, hop on over to the Test section and submit your answer right now... you could be a winner.

Great fake MK: Deadly Alliance pic
A few months ago, at about the time of the release of MK: Deadly Alliance, I stumbled upon a cool MK: DA fake fatality pic between Quan Chi and Scorpion, which in my opinion is one of the best (and one of the only ones I've seen) fake MK: DA pics out there.  I first witnessed it on the message board of MK5.org, and since then many people have really enjoyed it.  Therefore, I felt that others deserved to see it too since it is so damn nice and realistic, so click here to take a peek.  Credit goes out to Dante Is Back for making this sweet fake.  Enjoy.

MK: Deadly Alliance Krypt Complete
As promised, and after a lot of hard work, I've managed to complete the full Krypt page for all of you dedicated fans to use to open up those koffins in Deadly Alliance.  Right now there is just an alphabetical listing of the Krypt items from AA to ZZ, as well as a printable guide to match.  The other three ordered Krypt pages should hopefully be up sometime soon, but for now, enjoy the alphabetical index.

Complete MK: Deadly Alliance section finally here!!
Finally, it's here!  As a little delayed gift for the New Year, and after a lot of deleting the old junk and moving in the new, I have finally about 90% completed the MK: Deadly Alliance section the way that I've wanted it to be.  If you felt you had to wait too long for this, well, sorry, but I look at it as not spoiling the game right when it comes out.  But anyway, the section, as always, is and will be one of the most comprehenive and most appealing on the web, and there will be more to come in the future.  Please, take the time to browse around and check out the many detailed sections, such as story, basics, moves for all fighters, secrets, a printable moves guide and printable kombos guide, and much, much more.  Unfortunately, the Krypt section is still under construction, since it is a hell of a lot of work, but soon it will be complete and have a lot of options to it.  My own Playstation 2 review of the game will be dropping in soon, but I will need other people who own the XBox, GameCube, and GameBoy Advance versions of the game to send in a review if they want to help out.  So, send them here if you want to do a little work for me...lol.  As like most sections here at the site, I do not have a GameBoy Advance section for MK: DA as of yet, but in the future I will work on one since this game is like no other and has more to it.  So, enjoy the brand new MK: Deadly Alliance section, and keep checking back for more behind-the-scenes updates as I do a little more work and more things are discovered.  Peace.

New Year, a lot of recapping!
Happy new year to everyone once again, and welcome to 2003!  Sorry again for the lack of updates last month, but I'm always busy with other things, and free time has been scarce until now.  Like many times before, I'm just going to do a small recap of all the news that was missed so people aren't totally  left in the dark.  Enjoy...

-- Back on December 13th (Friday the 13th), MK5.org hosted a chat with the MK: Deadly Alliance Development Team on the #mortalkombat IRC Network, marking the return of Fight Night.   People were able to talk with the developers of MK: DA and throw in some important question we've all wanted answers to.  Although Ed Boon seemed to rudely disappear until the chat was almost over and left his co-workers to answer questions they had no clue about, we did manage to learn some interesting things and some disappointing things about the game.  You can read the full chat transcript here, but the main points can be read below:
1.) There are no second fatalities or stage fatalities (pits)
2.) Blaze and Mokap have no fatalities
3.) The whole 12:43 rumor and wisper in the Krypt are still unknown (the guy who created the Krypt was not available at the chat)
4.) A lot of things in the game are shaky because of "deadlines" :(
5.) The next Mortal Kombat game is in the works
6.) Reiko is not Shao Kahn, but they know each other somehow
7.) There is no cheat menu
8.) There is a big secret that has still not been discovered
9.) Reptile is really "de-evolving"

-- Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance sold really well in November, as the statistics below show:
The PS2 version sold over 202,000 copies in it's first 10 days on the shelves, and is a top-five title for the holiday season.  Total game sales had reached 1.3 million (PS2), 468,000 (XBox), 468,000 (GameCube), 1.3 million (GameBoy Advance) as of December 1st.  Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance ranked 9th in total sales on the Playstation 2 platform last month.

-- Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was featured on the website of the news network of CNN.  Click here to read their article.

-- GamePro reviewed both the Playstation 2 and XBox versions of MK: Deadly Alliance.

-- Recent word from the LA Times has it that Midway Games is putting itself up for sale.  Over the past few years, their profits from the gaming industry have been dropping rapidly, and although their hopes for MK: Deadly Alliance to rejuvinate the business were recently met and surpassed, the company is still looking for help in order to stay alive.  For more information on this new bit of information, click here.