NetherRealm Studios (stylized as NetheЯRealm Studios) is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Led by

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...

veteran and ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a ...

'' co-creator

Ed Boon Edward John Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director who was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its daughter c ...

, the studio is in charge of developing the ''

'' and ''

Injustice Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The term may be applied in reference to a particular event or situation, or to a larger status quo. In Western philosophy and jurisprudence, injustice is very commonly—but n ...

'' series of

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

History

On February 12, 2009,

Midway Games Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', '' Spy Hunter'' ...

filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

in the United States. Warner Bros. subsequently acquired "substantially all of the assets", including ''Mortal Kombat'', ''

This Is Vegas ''This Is Vegas'' is a cancelled Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game that was in development at Surreal Software and was to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox ...

'' and the Midway Games company structure, on July 10, 2009. While Warner Bros. went on to close most of Midway Games' Chicago headquarters and

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

and

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, development studios, they retained the Midway Games Chicago development studio, which became part of

Interactive Entertainment Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various ...

. The remaining studio was renamed WB Games Chicago several days later. On April 20, 2010, the studio was reincorporated as NetherRealm Studios, replacing WB Games Chicago. NetherRealm Studios' first game, was the ninth installment in the ''Mortal Kombat'' series, the title was released in April 2011. Their first game original intellectual property, '' Injustice: Gods Among Us'', based on the

DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green L ...

, was released in 2013. The success of the two games allowed the development of respective sequels; ''

Mortal Kombat X ''Mortal Kombat X'' is a 2015 fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the tenth main installment in the ''Mortal Kom ...

'' in 2015 and'' Injustice 2'' in 2017. Also, NetherRealm developed Android and iOS versions for '' Batman: Arkham City Lockdown'', '' Batman: Arkham Origins'', and ''

WWE Immortals ''WWE Immortals'' was a fighting game based on the professional wrestling promotion WWE. It was released on January 15, 2015, for Android and iOS. The game was developed by NetherRealm Studios in conjunction with Phosphor Game Studios and pub ...

''. The company's latest release, ''

Mortal Kombat 11 ''Mortal Kombat 11'' is a 2019 fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the eleventh main installment in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise and a sequel to 2015's '' Mortal ...

'', was released on April 23, 2019. On October 18, 2022, NetherRealm announced that, they are working on Mortal Kombat: Onslaught. It's a cinematic collection role-playing mobile game and will be released in 2023.

Games developed

Controversies

Shortly after the launch of ''Mortal Kombat 11'', several independent declarations from former employees came through about the studio's alleged practices and general working conditions during the development of their last four games, in what they described as a

toxic workplace A “toxic workplace” is a colloquial term used to describe a place of work, usually an office environment, that is marked by significant personal conflicts between those who work there. Such infighting can often harm productivity. Toxic workplac ...

with common instances of

gender discrimination Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primar ...

, as well as severe crunch time. In May 2019, NetherRealm released a statement saying "At NetherRealm Studios, we greatly appreciate and respect all of our employees and prioritize creating a positive work experience. As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage diversity and constantly take steps to reduce crunch time for our employees. We are actively looking into all allegations, as we take these matters very seriously and are always working to improve our company environment. There are confidential ways for employees to raise any concerns or issues." Following the statement, NetherRealm gave the studio the weekend off. The same month, another article by

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. Histor ...

reported on the mental toll the developers were taking on by developing such excessively violent video games—one developer detailed stories about how the team would view pictures and videos of murders or

animal slaughter Animal slaughter is the killing of animals, usually referring to killing domestic livestock. It is estimated that each year 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for food. Most animals are slaughtered for food; however, they may also be slau ...

as reference material, which would cause nightmares and eventual insomnia, with a diagnosis of

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats o ...

References

External links

* {{Warner Bros. Companies based in Chicago Mortal Kombat American companies established in 2010 Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment 2010 establishments in Illinois