Mortal Kombat 11 will have microtransactions for cosmetic items such as skins, gear, intro animations and victory animations, developer NetherRealm Studios has confirmed.

In a livestream yesterday, NetherRealm said players will be able to purchase time crystals with real money, and then use those crystals to unlock cosmetics. Players will also be able to spend crystals on "easy fatalities", which simplify the button inputs for the series' trademark finishers. You could also spend real money on easy fatalities in Mortal Kombat 10.

You can unlock all these items for free just by playing the game—time crystals are just a "shortcut", studio head Shaun Himmerick said. "Nothing in the game requires time crystals. You can play the whole game, unlock all the stuff there, without ever dealing with time crystals. If you want, you can get time crystals and shortcut your way to different things."

Players will also find crystals during normal play, and the game won't have any loot boxes, he said.

Thanks, GameInformer.