❘ Published: 2023-05-08T18:45:52
❘ Updated: 2023-05-08T18:46:02
Hogwarts Legacy ads are now invading Mortal Kombat 11, a marketing practice that fighting game fans have deemed “absolutely shameful.”
WB Games has been criticized by many for their practices, including those that are considered to be anti-consumer. Middle-earth Shadow of War’s microtransactions may be a familiar story.
In addition, NeatherRealm’s Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 were accused of featuring RNG grinds that ultimately encouraged players to spend money on microtransactions.
Mortal Kombat players are still sneering at the publisher, but this time it’s because of the new ads in MK11.
MK11 hosts Hogwarts Legacy advertisements to the dismay of fans
Reddit user kenshima15 posed the following question in the Mortal Kombat subreddit: “Why the hell is there an ad in a whole fighting game I paid for?”
To the player’s dismay, MK11 now features a promotion for another WB Games-published experience, Hogwarts Legacy.
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The ad in question appears on the game’s main menu just above the mode selection screen. Notably, it presents users with an option to click a button to “Buy Now.”
Fans aren’t happy, with one person writing in the thread: “Oh holy F–K that’s ugly. Absolutely shameful.” Someone else chimed in with, “It’s a really [shoddy] Business practice. If they were promoting MK12 or Injustice, I could say whatever, but this is just bulls–t.”
“I thought I would escape the ads by quitting mobile games,” said another frustrated Mortal Kombat 11 player.
MK11 had featured advertisements that were similar to those of Hogwarts Legacy. One person even pointed out that there were Terminator: Dark Fate ads at the end of 2019. This case made some sense given that the T-800 was introduced as a special character in October of that year.
Mortal Kombat 12 will, when it is released, likely have its own in-game promotion.
