Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition Disappears from Steam

If you’re a fan of 2011’s self-titled reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise, it appears that I’ve got some sudden, disappointing news for you if you’re looking to purchase the game on PC. According to the Steam store page for Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition (henceforth referred to as “Mortal Kombat 9”), the game is no longer available for sale on Steam “at the request of the publisher.”

The game’s Steam store page says absolutely nothing about why the game was removed from Valve’s storefront or whether it will ever return. Due to that, it seems we’re left only with the ability to speculate, at least for the time being. In light of that, Rock Paper Shotgun reports that there’s one particularly prominent theory among speculators. This theory ponders the possibility that the game’s removal has to do with its inclusion of Freddy Krueger, the razor-gloved serial killer who made a name for himself in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series, as a guest character.

Of course, as fans of any of NetherRealm Studios’ fighting games know all too well, the Mortal Kombat and Injustice developers are definitely no strangers to including guest combatants, or should I say “kombatants?” from various sources in their games. However, as far as I’m aware, this may well be the first time the removal of a game like this has occurred for a potential reason like this.

I suspect the rights to the film franchise in question, and perhaps the rights to Krueger himself as a character, have caused a bit of an issue in this context. I should note that games are removed from storefronts like Steam for relatively small copyright issues fairly often, though. For example, Grand Theft Auto IV was recently removed and is currently in the process of becoming available for purchase on Steam once again, albeit without online play capabilities or, more pertinently, a few of its radio stations.

If Mortal Kombat 9 was indeed removed from Steam over a copyright kerfuffle, however, I must admit that this possibility causes me to worry a bit about the potential fate of NetherRealm’s other games that are available on Steam. All of the games in question contain guest fighters, whether they’re DLC or otherwise. Most notably, Mortal Kombat X features Freddy Krueger’s one-time rival, Jason Voorhees, and Mortal Kombat 11 contains a playable T-800 model of the Terminator.

I think it’s important to note that, as is the case with virtually every game I know of that’s been removed from Steam for one reason or another, you can most likely still download and play the game if it’s already present in your Steam library. As far as I know, the only issue is that it can’t currently be purchased or, by extension, gifted to friends.

For what I consider to be a change of pace, I’m not going to conclude this report by making a pun about the Mortal Kombat series having sustained a Fatality in the wake of Mortal Kombat 9’s (hopefully temporary) removal from sale on Steam. Instead, I wish only to express my hope that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and whomever owns the rights to the films that might be causing an issue are able to forge a strong, long-lasting Friendship.