I recently spoke with Derek Kirtzic, designer at NetherRealm about Injustice 2. We spoke about Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat and what the future holds for the studio. Kirtzic told me that NetherRealm is committed to supporting Injustice 2 into the future.
The developer has already seen incredible numbers of players and player retention in Injustice 2. Kirtzic explained how NetherRealm wanted to keep that trend going into the future.
Long-term Support
[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”We’re gonna continue to support the game” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””][/perfectpullquote]”We’re gonna continue to support the game,” Kirtzic told me adding “we’ll, of course, continue with the tournament scene. This game [Injustice 2] has legs.” Kirtzic isn’t overstating anything when he claims Injustice 2 “has legs.” He explains that players have been spending 50-hours or more with Injustice 2. These kinds of numbers are unheard of for a lot of fighting games. Even some RPGs would struggle to keep players invested up to the 50-hour mark.
“Traditionally, a lot of games, on average, players play around eight hours of a game and they’re done. We’ve been lucky with Injustice to bring in retention that’s up to 50 hours. That is really, really good for a fighting game.” With players already so invested, how do NetherRealm and Kirtzic plan to keep them that way?
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Kirtzic says the strategy is simple, “We’re gonna continue to do things that we can in the multiverse, updating guilds, updating everything that we can to keep people playing and keep people invested. People are spending a lot of time in this game, right?”
When Kirtzic spoke about the time spent in-game I asked him about the infamous Cat Fight Trophy/Achievement. I told him that it took me about 52-hours of grinding to get the Cat Call Ability for Catwoman and he laughed. “I got it from my fourth bronze box,” Kirtzic says with a sly grin. “As soon as I got it I tweeted it out and I was like, ‘Look at that! Came from a bronze box!'”
All it takes is some patience and luck.
Injustice 2 is available now.
