Mortal Kombat (commonly abbreviated "MK") is a series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines, and later to home consoles. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros. in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The most recent title is Mortal Kombat which is an alternate retelling of the events from the first three games in the series.
The development of the first game was originally based on idea of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was created instead and released in 1992. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several action-adventure games, films and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour.
