I'm going to share a bit of a lengthy story here if you all don't mind...
So in 2013, I was in attendance at Microsoft's E3 Briefing when it was announced. I didn't have any kind of pass for the E3 show itself at the time, but you were able to purchase an Industry pass for $998. When I learned the game was playable on the floor, I knew I had to get my hands on it. So I purchased the ticket and attended my first E3.
Getting to play the game and see how much everyone was really enjoying it was great to see. Met Ken Lobb for the first time, interacting with devs at Double Helix, witnessed Maximillian wiping the floor with people and I had no idea who he was then. I knew nothing of the FGC, but knew of KI since I've been a fan of Rare my whole life.
So once E3 wrapped, I was covering news for the game on a dedicated Rare website that I had. And then I had the idea of perhaps starting a website specifically for KI... so I did. And on July 26th, 2013, I launched Killer Instinct Central with a really big exclusive courtesy of Mick Gordon: a KI Music Suite. And from day one all the way up to early 2017, the website was just an enormous success. There was an average of around 100,000 unique visitors visit the website every month. People were really hungry for Killer Instinct news and just had an appetite for more and more. I don't want this to all be misconstrued as me bragging about the website, I'm just pointing out that from my perspective of running it, it was just so clear that the game was doing really well and there was a lot of people who were very passionate about the franchise.
And in those four years, I got to travel to EVO for the first time for 3 years, attended the KI panels Microsoft had, went to Texas one year for the KI World Cup. I also had the privilege of meeting so many amazing people at Microsoft, Double Helix, Iron Galaxy, and a lot of great people from the FGC. Ishmae1, James Goddard, Jebailey, Max, Keits, Brandon... Heck, I even had dinner in LA with Mick Gordon and Ali Edwards! Every single one of them couldn't have been nicer and you could tell from the way they spoke of the game that they were truly passionate about KI and I think having that passion went a long ways to them delivering the game they did and continuing to work on it for so long.
I'm just really grateful for that four years of my life. Microsoft and everyone who worked on the game delivered an amazing product and I fully trust that should another game in the franchise come in the future, that it won't disappoint as I'm sure that same love and passion we saw in the previous iteration will also pour over into the new one.
P.S. if you read this Ishame1 and Keits, thanks for always being so kind. Our brief communications at the events were always a pleasure :)
