Since last night PC fighting game fans have been able to download the first three gigs of Mortal Kombat X on Steam — and that’s all. Understandable frustration follows.
Mortal Kombat X is testing out a new sort of install system on Steam, in which a smaller initial download is offered to get players into the game, after which the bulk of the data is streamed in the background. Ideally this would allow players to mess about with single player battles or practice mode while waiting out the rest of the download, sort of like the PlayStation 4 handles downloadable titles.
Except that downloadable data is not there. It looks like Mortal Kombat X Install packs 01 through 29 will be launched hours from now, timed according to a regular Steam noon-ish release. They should be available at the same time the Mortal Kombat X: Kombat Pack DLC unlocks.
The problem is there doesn’t seem to be any official indication of this. Mortal Kombat X shows up on the front page of Steam as a launched game. There is an official announcement detailing the streaming install process, but it doesn’t indicate that the download files aren’t available yet.
As many Steam community members have noticed, the size of the initial pre-load for Mortal Kombat X is about 3 GB. This is because we are using a new feature of Steam that allows the game to be played while the full download is streamed and installed in the background. As soon as the game is played for the first time, a batch of DLC content will appear in your download queue. Check the Steam client to see the download progress on DLC items labelled Mortal Kombat X Install Pack 01 through 23. You’ll be able to play the game while these downloads complete.
At this point I can launch the game. The opening credit splashes roll, I get the streaming install message. I can tweak options. When I try to start the game, either single player or practice, it crashes immediately to desktop.
The Steam forums for Mortal Kombat X are filled with angry customers. Some have no idea what’s going on and demand their money back.
I want my money back
almost 300 player in my MK group (all) and me cannot play the game.
and no full game download
We all want my money back.
and We swear , We will not buy any game develop by NetherRealm Studios again.
Others are wondering why no official statement has been released clarifying the situation.
Why do we have no official statement?
This is the main reason I am pissed off. Nothing has been said about the issue and we’re still left in the dark about it. I have never experienced such a miserable, nonchalant attempt at a midnight release. What an embarassment.
And while there are players attempting to calm the angry masses…
Why is everyone going so apeshit?
People saying ‘FILE A LAWSUIT AGAINST VALVE! THEY STEAL OUR MONEY!’ Like how? I understand the global release can be annoying as I too want to play the game ASAP and the small Pre-Load shouldnt be a ‘new steam feature they’re testing’ when its such a big game, both in download size and popularity, just wait a few more hours and itll be ready to play while the rest downloads.
…those angry masses have a point. If I buy a game on Steam and Steam tells me that game is ready to download and play, then the game really should be available to download and play. The idea of a small download getting players into the game enough to play a few rounds while the rest downloads in the background is great. Making that small initial download available some twelve hours before the rest of the content required to play without explanation is outrageous.
Update: Looks like the rest of the game is finally available, with all 29 DLC parts ready to download.
Comments
14 responses to “Mortal Kombat X’s Streaming Steam Install Has Fans Angry And Confused”
I’m glad I bought it on XboxOne (although the 2.4gig patch to play online is annoying). I’m crap but it does bring back some memories of the old MK games
It was only 1.8 gigs on the PS4 😛 But at least I could play it while it downloaded in he background.
What was a bit annoying last night though is that I couldn’t redeem my Goro code or play online. I suspect though that’s due to the fact that it broke street date and those features were not scheduled to be enabled until today.
People get angry over the strangest things these days. I’m the type for whom video games are my life, but…it’s just a day one issue. There’s no justification for getting so angry. Relax, take a break and come back tomorrow (or in a few hours) and it’ll work fine.
Honestly, I hate this saying, but if the worst thing in your life is that you can’t play a video game for a few hours after it launches, you’re doing pretty damn good. And if that problem makes you angry, you need some perspective.
I wholeheartedly agree. I do assume that the reactions posted in this article were some of the more extreme ones and I also acknowledge that the release was not great at all but people getting agitated about it need to just take a few deep breaths. Expectations of instant gratification = bane of human existence.
I’ve been reading the GTA5 forums on Steam as well, so it’s a bit of both in my comment above really. Then there’s the doomsayers that insist that because there’s a hundred threads about problems on the boards, it must be a disaster of a launch. Never mind the 300,000 people in-game and playing happily, of course.
While the hyperbole of the angry mob is extreme, I have to agree with them. I mean why is it ok of the company that sells you a game to tell you, “you can play now” when that’s totally false? There wouldn’t be any of this trouble if the sellers didn’t try to do this hokey pre-load nonsense. No extra promises or assurances need to be made when the very simple ‘full install – now play’ rules are kept
I agree they should have made the packages available at the same time as the game was released. I just don’t think there’s anything to get angry about. They made a mistake on a new deployment system they’ve never used before. I don’t think it’s indicative of the doom of gaming or some conspiracy to fuck people over for the lulz. Just pretend it got delayed by 12 hours and come back later.
All of that would be entirely forgivable if there was some rapid message explaining that there was a small cockup and that the data would be available as soon as humanly possible. Instead it sounds like they adopted an attitude of “We have your money and you’ll get what we promised one of these days if we can be bothered”.
Experimenting is grand as long as it’s done in a transparent & responsible manner. Tell people in advance that you’re trying something new and if it doesn’t work, tell them why or at least that there’s been a problem and that you’re working at fixing it because that’s only fair. Otherwise it’s literally worse than Hitler! Granted, that’s only because Hitler has been dead for 70 years, otherwise it wouldn’t hold a candle to that shitbag
Well, to be fair, in the last few years we’ve definitely got more ‘games that didn’t work on launch’ than we’ve had for the previous 20 years. Maybe not the ‘doom of gaming’ but still an indicator of changing times, that tastes yucky when it shouldn’t.
I’d say that’s more an indicator of the much larger number of people playing games now, the increasing complexity of games and the diversity of hardware configurations people run them on rather than incompetency, which is what the angry ranters tend to fall back on.
I don’t disagree that it happens, I disagree that it’s anything to get upset about.
Then we’ll agree to disagree. Like fine gentlemen.
dont pretend like its the worst thing in anyones life little son. its merely the icing on the cake, to another shit day in the life of a human being.
why cant you relate with these people? are you that much of a joke? silly little son.
The Xbox One also handles the install in a similar way to PS4 (although oddly not mentioned in the article).
I was actually really impressed with the way it was done. I was able to start the game at about 25% installed, although modes were very limited. Initially, I basically only had access to fatality practice, and about 6 characters. As I was goofing around, new modes and characters opened up.
Okay to ease up the angry mob, all I have to say is just be patient.
I pre-ordered the MK X Premium Edition with the Kombat Pack last month. So I waited for April 14 and it should have been ready to play. BUT, last week my local PS4 games retailer started selling MK X!! I could not wait for one more week so I bought the PS4 disc version while my pre-order is still waiting to be charged and downloaded. So I got to play MK X, finished story mode, leveled up, learned some Fatalities and Brutalities… And I still want my digital Premium Edition and Kombat Pack. Yesterday, it’s finally available. The annoying thing is that I had to delete my disc version (about 35GB) before I can download and play with my pre-ordered Premium Edition. So I deleted the disc version and started downloading the Premium Edition AND OH MY HECK the download was soooo slow!!! I had to leave it overnight to download 35GB of application data + 1.8GB of patch + 3GB for the initial game data. The download was really slow compared to normal download speeds.
Okay the point of the long story is that the downloads are slow because thousands more are downloading the same amount of huge data all over the world. You can’t really blame that on Valve and/or NetherRealm. You gotta put into the equation your region’s network infrastructure, the number of devices downloading at the same time, network congestion, etc.. You can’t just be mad cuz you can’t have what you want! GO buy the disc version if you want to play it right away. That’s the trade-off of streaming/downloading games, their availability depends on the networks and servers involved. You should have known and expected that even before considering the streaming/downloading option. Really, you can’t just be mad. I’m not mad. I had to redo the process of downloading the entire game all over again when I had it on disc. And I wasn’t flaming at all spilling all my frustrations over a single game in forums. When I woke up this morning, it was ready to play and it’s just working well.
So you guys just be patient. Don’t be mad. You gotta take a look at the technical issues going on back stage with Steam and NetherRealm. Once your downloads complete, you will love MK X. Just be patient. It really is worth the wait. 😀
See you in online matches!!! xD