GI: Now that the Wii’s out, you were such a fan of it before, talking about Mortal Kombat–even though you didn’t say that–what’s your experience with it been like? What are some of the games that you’ve been playing on it?

Boon: It’s really weird. You know, Nintendo’s presentation for it saying, “It’s Wii, it’s more people, more people are seeing it,” at first, I wondered if that was more of an ad campaign than was their intention, but that remote does do that. The fact that anybody can wave something up and down and left and right, and not everybody can do a circular fireball motion with the A button makes it more accessible to people. That’s what we realized, and that’s what happened with Armageddon on the Wii. People have come up to me and said, “I’ve never been able to do that circular motion, but now I can throw Sub-Zero’s fireball. I’ve never been able to do that away-towards stuff, but now I can throw Scorpion’s spear.” That has been the very pleasant discovery that we found doing this game.

GI: What about WiiConnect24? Are there any plans for downloadable content or other things that you’re thinking about?

Boon: Maybe for future next-gen stuff. I think downloadable content and episodic stuff is inevitable. I’d like to think—I wouldn’t promise—but I’d like to think that our next-generation Mortal Kombat game will have characters you can download, backgrounds you can download–and we’re designing our games to have that kind of content in packets that could be added to the existing game.

GI: Let’s talk about next-gen. You talked a little bit about the arcade concept that you’ve been mulling around in your head. Is that something that you guys are fleshing out?

Boon: Yeah. I always thought that the standard lobby approach of hooking people up online seemed kind of obvious to do. I’d love to incorporate that into gameplay. We have some really crazy ideas that are really kind of extreme, and I’d be hesitant to mention them because people would assume that they’re in the next game. But we’re definitely looking into different interfaces to the player for a lobby. For a way to get players hooked up and playing online, an ongoing thing like a ranking system or whatnot. I’ve always wanted to have sort of a virtual arcade. It’s weird, because I can picture it in my head and I can see walking through the arcade and putting your quarter up, but I wonder how many people have experienced that part. It’s been so long—the early ‘90s—before some people were born, and they say, “What the hell is an arcade?” We’re trying a bunch of stuff right now.

GI: How far into development is it?

Boon: The main thing we’re doing right now is the core technology. We’re using the Unreal 3 engine, and we’re getting our base, “How do display a character, normal-mapping, bump-mapping, shadows” all the things that are expected of the game. I have a bunch of ideas on paper in terms of things that I’d like to theoretically try, but it’s not like it’s in a playable state yet.

GI: I think last E3 I asked you if we’d see the game for the first time at the next E3. Now that E3’s been pushed back to July, do you think it’s still a possibility?

Boon: Which game?

GI: The next-gen MK.

Boon: No. You know, we’re doing something with the next game that’s unbelievably unexpected, and there’s going to be an announcement. I totally was told, “You cannot talk about this thing.” I think it’s going to be rolled out.

GI: Fishing. Mortal Kombat Fishing.

Boon: I wish I could—I can tell you after we’re done with this interview and you shut off the recorder. (laughs)

GI: How has the experience been with the next-gen, and what are some of the nuances that you’re finding with the Xbox 360 and PS3?

Boon: Our goal, graphically, with this game is to be as gritty and—I don’t like to use the word “dirty,” because I don’t want to imply not-cool graphics—but a very dark, serious Mortal Kombat. Not vibrant, saturated colors, but more of a really down and dirty Mortal Kombat game. To me, when I saw Gears of War, I was like, “Holy s___! That’s the look that we’ve been talking about.” Visually, that’s what we want to do. Gameplay-wise, I kind of attribute it to what we did with Deadly Alliance, where everything is thrown out. We’re not going to have three fighting styles, we’re not going to have the same punches and kicks and the same kind of control scheme. Everything is getting trashed. We’re reinventing everything from the ground up. We really think that’s needed—you know, we’re on Mortal Kombat 8, in a sense—to kind of wipe the slate clean every once in a while, and I kind of feel that now is the time. Our visual presentation and our game presentation and our thing that you’ll hear about very soon are all going to be new to this game. It’s going to be nothing like you’ve ever seen before.

GI: What’s it like to flush it all and start over?

Boon: It’s really scary. There’s some stuff that I thought really worked well in the previous three games, but I really feel that we can’t do any more of it. We can’t do the new fighting-style stuff. We need to do something different. A lot of people say, “How do they keep selling well?” And we really believe that’s one of the reasons. We’re not afraid to say, “That’s working, but it’s time to do something new because it’s been five years.”

GI: Hypothetical time-frame for release. Are we talking ’08?

Boon: Yeah. I would guess—and I wouldn’t promise—it would be around the fall, Novemberish time of 2008.

GI: Across all three platforms?

Boon: We’re talking about that.

GI: What are you playing now, for fun?

Boon: I’m playing the hell out of Guitar Hero 2. I love that game. Gears of War is awesome. I haven’t had time to finish it, though. And I’m ashamed to say I’m trying to finish God of War 1 before God of War 2 comes out. (laughs) I haven’t had time to finish it. Those are the three things I’m into right now.