Gaming Everything
Killer Instinct is a free-to-play game. Only one playable character is included with the initial download: Jago. To get your hands on additional roster inclusions, you’ll need to give up some money for the Xbox One game.
Microsoft’s Torin Rettig explained to Polygon how the free-to-play system works:
“Most fighting games that come out are disc based games where you get a huge cast of awesome characters, but it is a massive cast. Some games have anywhere between 30, 40, even 50 characters. And in reality, most players don’t play that many characters. You just only have so much time to get good at so many characters. So we wanted to take that into consideration and release the game in a way that took that into consideration and allowed players to get in and play the game at the level that they want to play it.
“So the way this game will work is when it releases, you’ll be able to play one character for free,” he added. “You’ll be able to just download the client and play that character — Jago — as much as you want. And you will be able to buy other characters and other content as you see fit. So as much or as little as you want. We wanted there to be basically a wide funnel. We wanted as many players to get in and enjoy the game and experience the game as possible, and to engage in it at a level that they want to engage at.”
Microsoft has confirmed that players will be able to fight against the entire roster online. Additionally, Rettig and developer Double Helix “want to release the content is we want to release characters at a regular cadence”. New characters will continue to arrive “as long as players are interested.”
There are also plans for a season pass-type of option. Players will be able to acquire the full package by paying for it with one lump sum.
