The first Mortal Kombat 12 teaser appears to be 10 seconds of unusually detailed sand

Fans are pretty sure we've just gotten a look at the first Mortal Kombat 12 teaser, taking the form of a 10 second clip showcasing several extremely detailed grains of sand.

The clip appears at the end of a video titled 'Thank You from NetherRealm,' in which developers from across the history of the series express their gratitude to fans for making the games a success over the past three decades. Series co-creator Ed Boon concludes the video by saying "we're not quite done yet," and then we cut to a dynamic shot of sand draining through an hourglass. At the very end, a hyper-detailed grain of sand explodes into what looks like a whole new universe.

I don't have the space to fully detail the intricacies of Mortal Kombat lore here, but the ending of MK11 deals with an hourglass that has the power to reset time itself. There are multiple endings to both the main story and the Aftermath expansion, but most of them see one of the characters taking control of the hourglass to reshape the timeline. It remains to be seen what new form the MK universe will take, but the 'big bang' at the end of this teaser suggests to me that we're getting another full-on reboot.

This teaser marks the first time the devs themselves have teased Mortal Kombat 12, but technically the game was announced earlier this year in the most low-key way imaginable. As part of a Warner Bros financial report earlier in 2023, CEO David Zaslav casually confirmed that Mortal Kombat 12 is "set for release this year."

If MK12 does indeed launch this year, fighting game fans are going to be feasting. Mortal Kombat 12 and Street Fighter 6 going head-to-head in 2023 would be the stuff arcade dreams are made of.

Our list of the best fighting games is about to have some new contenders with Mortal Kombat 1 launching this fall.