I was a little bit psyched for the new Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (MK:SM) on Xbox and then saw that it doesn’t have any Xbox live support. Big goose egg. These days if a game isn’t super innovative and doesn’t offer live online play then that dramatically reduces the chance I’ll reach for the wallet. Yeah, so what, I’m just one customer, but those paying for the Xbox Live service want to see every new game have some sort of Xbox Live support.

According to Microsoft executive, Robbie Bach, XBox live has just 10% subscriber penetration: some 2 million of the estimated 20 million or so Xbox owners. In our household, we have two Xboxes and two Xbox live accounts — got to have it that way to keep the peace between our kids. So we are helping to up the stats.

I’m 99.9% certain we’ll be going with Xbox 360 Live too at launch time although so far what I’ve heard about launch titles has left me underwhelmed (14 of the 21 proposed launch titles are sequels, the second wave titles 5 of 6 are sequels).

At least MK:SM could have downloadable characters, online scoreboards, something. Note to console game makers: add online support! It’s not an extra feature, it’s important. Some sort of online functionality shouldn’t be an option any longer. This is 2005, not 1995.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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