Xbox cancelled official Killer Instinct tournaments in 2021 because of worries players might expect a sequel

[Fenton]

Tournament organizer Connor Kelly made a thread on Twitter reflecting on an incident when he was working for Start.GG after Microsoft acquired the platform, where Xbox pulled support for KI tournaments that were successfully bringing new users to Start.GG, because of fears that official tournaments might lead players to believe a sequel was in development when that (presumably) wasn't the case at the time.

 

[Batzy]

We don't want to make good games - Phil Spencer

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Just crazy that some idiot middle manager at XGS was like: We're not planning on making a KI, so why are we doing this for?
Why is folks online happy about thinking about a potential sequel a bad thing?
That doesn't hurt anything, it's just a small minority of oldheads.

Funniest thing is that they're probably working on a KI sequel considering they tasked Iron Galaxy with updating KI 2013(probably as some sort of test to see demand).

 

[GachaMadeMeBroke]

Lmao bruh, I expect nothing less from Xbox management. Why stifle interest and community passion like this? The people supporting your game years later are the mouthpieces for the game in the event you do want to do something with the franchise. I know Xbox management is braindead but come on, man…

 

[Sunrise Ninja]

The only reason I bought a xbox one over a PS4 at the time was because of Killer Instinct.

Xbox are clowns, I'm happy I've stop financially supporting these buffoons.

 

[Airbus]

What a ridiculous statement

 

[laynelane]

Great franchise, great fighting game that I'd love to see more of and It really sucks that KI belongs to MS. It's been very worrying to see more IPs being bought by them considering how poorly they treat the ones they already have. Unsurprisingly, Phil was lying about KI right around the same time as the events outlined in those tweets:

Phil Spencer says Xbox ‘wants to continue’ with Killer Instinct | VGC

Microsoft’s head of gaming says “it’s about finding the right team and the right opportunity”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Article is dated 23rd June, 2021, and has bs like this throughout:

“It’s about finding the right team and the right opportunity,” Spencer added, “but it is not due to any kind of lack of desire on our part that we’re not doing more with KI because we love the franchise and the community response.”

 

[Jim Ryan]

This is just sad, it's an IP that deserves to be played by everyone.

We need more fighting games.

 

[Maverick]

Hahahaha. What is this?

Fans want new game and they cancel the tournaments because they don't want to make a new game? You'll never learn, Xbox.

 

[Syndr0mePK]

God forbid people expect something.