Mortal Kombat brutalizes April

The Mortal Kombat series has always placed a heavy emphasis on secrets, but Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today laid bare much of its launch plan for the franchise's next installment. The publisher today specified a launch window for the violent fighter, as well as retailer-exclusive preorder incentives, system-exclusive features, and multiple premium editions.

When the game launches on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in April 2011, it will be available in three different versions: the standard release, a Kollector's Edition, and a Tournament Edition. The Kollector's Edition will include Sub-Zero and Scorpion figurines, an art book, and a downloadable classic costume skin and avatar outfits. The Tournament Edition will be limited to 20,000 copies in North America, and it will include a portable fight stick, in addition to an exclusive downloadable classic costume and avatar outfits.

In addition to choosing which version's bonuses to get, consumers will also have a choice when it comes to retailer-specific preorder incentives. WBIE announced deals with three retailers that will see customers get playable classic costumes, as well as an original fatality for a specific character. GameStop will give players the classic costume and fatality for Scorpion, with Best Buy claiming the same for Sub-Zero, and Amazon offering those bonuses for Reptile.

Exclusive content is a theme for the latest installment in the long-running fighter. WBIE has also revealed that God of War protagonist Kratos will be a playable character in the PS3 version of the game. It will be the Ghost of Sparta's second tilt in a fighter, as he was also a playable character in last year's PSP brawler Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. Kratos isn't the only PS3-excluisve planned for the game, as the version of Mortal Kombat for Sony's system will also feature stereoscopic 3D support.

For more on Mortal Kombat, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.