
The series takes place in a fictional universe consisting of eighteen surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. Interactive Entertainment currently owns the rights to the franchise which it rebooted in 2011. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the Mortal Kombat development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Early games in this series were also noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters. Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB video game rating system. The series has a reputation for high levels of violent content, including, most notably, its Fatalities (finishing moves, requiring a sequence of button inputs to perform). Along with Street Fighter and Tekken, Mortal Kombat has become one of the most successful fighting franchises in the history of video games and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The original game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs consisting of several action-adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action), as well as a comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour.



The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but as that idea fell through, a horror-fantasy themed fighting game titled Mortal Kombat was created instead. Mortal Kombat is a video game franchise originally developed by Midway Games' Chicago studio in 1992.
