Killer Instinct is a popular fighting game developed by Rare and made its way to arcades in 1994. Killer Instinct proved a success in arcades and made its way to consoles in 1995, and spawned a sequel in the form of Killer Instinct: Gold back in 1996. Microsoft acquired Rare in 2010 and revealed a new Killer Instinct in 2013 during the Microsoft conference at E3 as an exclusive Xbox IP. Killer Instinct remains a popular fighting game and the community has been active with the most recent Killer Instinct tournament being hosted by Maximilian Dood in collaboration with Twitch Rivals. 

The Killer Instinct scene is one the most devoted scenes within the Fighting Game Community and has been the most outspoken on a new game with the hashtag “Bring back KI,” content creator and influencer “Maximilian Dood” Maximilian Christianson got the hashtag trending in support of the popular fighting game last year. The hashtag may have gotten Microsoft to acknowledge Killer Instinct as a front-runner exclusive title as rumors now suggest that a new Killer Instinct is in active development at Microsoft. 

The rumor comes from the XboxEra podcast where host and founder “Shpeshal Nick” Nick Baker has received insider information that a new Killer Instinct is in the works. He claims that quote, “What I’ve been told is that yes, Killer Instinct is back. It’s not just ‘coming back.’ It’s in active development at the moment.” However, Nick says he doesn’t know who’s developing although he believes it’s not Iron Galaxy who took over after Double Helix was acquired by Amazon in 2013.

“For anyone asking me, I don’t know the studio. I haven’t been told. I’m legitimately trying to find out the studio because I’m pretty sure it’s not Iron Galaxy,” Baker said. Adam Heart, a developer at Iron Galaxy, confirmed that they weren’t working on a new Killer Instinct.

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, acknowledged the classic Rare IP on the Dropped Frames podcast back in June where he stated that “It’s about finding the right team and the right opportunity, but it’s not due to any kind of lack of desire on our part that we’re not doing more with Killer Instinct, because we love the franchise and the community response.”