^{Image: NetherRealm Studios}

Further confirmation that the studio is set to release Mortal Kombat 12 this year.

NetherRealm Studios released a developer video called ‘Thank You From NetherRealm’ today, surprising fans with a brief teaser for its next game: Mortal Kombat 12. The video celebrates 30 years of Mortal Kombat by thanking fans for supporting the fighting game franchise, and ends with a look at its mysterious next entry.

Here’s the video:

The video goes through the last 30 years of Mortal Kombat history, with developers from NetherRealm shouting out their fans for being such avid supporters of the notoriously gory (and very fun) series of fighting games. The franchise’s co-creator Ed Boon then ends the video by telling fans that, “We’re not quite done yet.”

At this point, the video cuts away to seemingly rendered footage of the last few grains of sand falling in an hourglass. The final grain of sand to drop is shown in realistic detail, but it explodes before it hits the bottom of the hourglass. The explosion itself hints at some supernatural shenanigans, as it briefly creates what looks like a universe filled with stars and planets.

The hourglass motif is a callback to Mortal Kombat 11, wherein the surviving heroes of the franchise teamed up to take on a time-controlling deity called Kronika. Upon defeating Kronika, Liu Kang took control of her hourglass to erase the events of all previous games in the franchise, and reshape the universe from scratch. After a brief spat with Shang Tsung as seen in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath, he erased the villain from history, forged a New Era of Mortal Kombat and began training Kung Lao’s ancestor as a Mortal Kombat champion.

If that sounds confusing, all you really need to know is that Mortal Kombat 11 wiped a very complicated slate clean, and Mortal Kombat 12 is going to be a reboot of the franchise’s lore. Some things will be different - Shang Tsung is gone and Raiden is mortal - but other things will likely be the same. This will be the second time NetherRealm has attempted to reboot the franchise, after Mortal Kombat (2011).

With this teaser, it looks like NetherRealm is finally ready to stop playing coy and fully unveil the sequel this year. Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav had already confirmed that Mortal Kombat 12 would launch in 2023 during an earlier financial report, so that might have sped up the developer’s reveal timeline a bit. Between Mortal Kombat 12, Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, it’s a good time to be a fighting game fan.

NetherRealm drops Mortal Kombat 12 teaser featuring exploding sand