Killer Instinct may give us somewhat fear-inducing flashbacks to the Xbox One launch era, but it's grown into a bit of a cult classic since its Xbox launch in 2013. The team has continued to update and improve the title over the years, and this month's update is looking like it will keep the Xbox exclusive fighter going for years to come.
In short, the team's May 2023 update for Killer Instinct will migrate the online services over to a fresh client to ensure the game continues to work in the future. The dev has started moving things over to the 'PlayFab services' which should provide a stronger platform for the game in 2023 and beyond.
"Over the last five years, however, it has become more challenging to deal with issues that crop up due to KI’s reliance on legacy services. We have been working on solutions to address these concerns. Thank you for being patient and amazing fans through any bumps in the road.
We have started migrating KI’s legacy services to PlayFab services, a process which will happen over the next several months. This is a quality-of-life (QOL) update and does not have any new content or tuning changes: it ensures the game you know and love continues to provide the best possible player experience."
We do wonder what this sort of thing means for the future of Killer Instinct - it's a double edged sword really. On one hand this could mean we're unlikely to see a brand-new game anytime soon, but it could also hint that Xbox wants to keep the series going because it has a planned future for the franchise.
Whichever way Microsoft goes, it's good to see such an old game still get updated almost a decade after launch. Still - some fans will be hoping that a new game is right around the corner!