It’s been a weird week for video game crossovers; San Diego Comic-Con shed light on a ton of ambitious projects from various pop culture realms, but one of the strangest things to be quasi-confirmed is the weirdly robust amount of Terminator DLC coming to multiple games in the near future. To be fair, most of this has been public knowledge for a little while, but it’s still a little strange to suddenly see the menacing, metallic face of the T-800 take the internet so suddenly by storm.
Of the games rumored to be getting Schwarzenneger-themed DLC, Ubisoft’s upcoming Ghost Recon: Breakpoint may be the most conspicuous. It definitely seems like a weird tie-in on the surface, but, technically, The Predator was added to Wildlands back in late 2017, so all bets may be off when it comes to that franchise. Plus, the plot of the new game seems to be centered around some sort of Skynet-esque drone-manufacturing agency, so it’s more fitting than casual fans may initially think.
The other major gaming franchise to receive the Terminator treatment is Gears of War. The third-person shooter franchise has seen a pretty dramatic shift in terms of narrative over the years, but this is a bit extreme. This was first revealed by Microsoft during June’s E3 conference, and they made sure to mention that it’s just a skin pack—so, unfortunately, Kait Diaz won’t be fighting to save humanity from the vicious grip of Skynet this time around.
Perhaps the most talked-about Terminator crossover, however, has yet to be officially confirmed; according to a leak dating back to April of this year, Capcom’s Mortal Kombat 11 will be getting some love from the beloved sci-fi film franchise. While the leak did indicate that something related to the movies will apparently be appearing in the game at some point, we don’t quite know if this will be the Terminator, aka Arnie’s T-800, or some other non-specific model. It may also be worth noting that Ash Williams of the Evil Dead franchise seems to be slated to make the roster in the near future, as well. However, Marvel Comics’ Spawn seems likely to be the next non-MK canon character added to the list of fighters.
While fans have been clamoring for more information about these leaks for months, neither Capcom nor the folks behind the upcoming film seem eager to share anything at the moment. In fact, there was a perfect opportunity to officially unveil the DLC character during the SDCC Terminator panel, and yet nothing concrete was said. While Terminator: Dark Fate is certainly more of an interesting topic among fans of the movies, it still would have been nice to hear something about the future of Mortal Kombat 11’s DLC.
Yet, with 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con now come and gone, this collaborative effort seems just a little bit less likely. Capcom is either playing their cards extremely close to the vest, or the Terminator's appearance in Mortal Kombat 11 isn't going to happen.
Of course, it could be that the devs are either waiting for some other event or perhaps the release of Terminator: Dark Fate this November to release the tie-in. Until then, it’s not like MK 11 players don’t already have enough to grind through as it is.