As part of a free weekend beta

Months after Mortal Kombat XL and the fighting game’s second Kombat Pack, which added four new characters, hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, those updates have finally come to the Windows PC version of Mortal Kombat X.

Developer NetherRealm Studios is holding an "online enhanced beta" for the Steam version of Mortal Kombat XL this weekend. The beta is intended to help NetherRealm "test improved online gameplay and more," according to an update posted to Steam. It runs until Monday, Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. PT.

The release of Mortal Kombat XL and four additional characters (Bo’ Rai Cho, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Triborg and the xenomorph from Alien) was somewhat unceremonious, unless you count the multiple hints that career teaser and Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has been posting to Twitter. Boon recently surveyed Mortal Kombat X players on what they’d like to see NetherRealm work on, with "MKXL with GGPO [netcode] for PC" receiving the majority of votes.

It’s not clear yet when Mortal Kombat XL and Kombat Pack 2 will be officially available for the Windows PC version of the game, but we’ve reached out to publisher Warner Bros. for details.

Mortal Kombat X was originally released in April 2015. The Windows PC port of the game, handled by High Voltage Studios, was negatively received by players who derided it as inferior to its console counterparts. The Steam version currently has a "mixed" reception from players who have slammed Warner Bros. and NetherRealm for the game’s lack of support on PC.

Earlier this year, NetherRealm began testing new networking code for Mortal Kombat X‘s online component, a GGPO-like solution designed to reduce lag. NetherRealm said at the time that the networking update and second batch of downloadable characters were only coming to the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game.

Source: Polygon – Full