# V2 Minimum Lovable Launch (MLL) — P1 De-Scope Ladder

Status: planning baseline, adopted 2026-06-12. Fills the
"no minimum-lovable-launch cut-line inside P1" gap identified by
`V1_V7_PLAN_SET_AUDIT_2026-06-12.md` §6.2.

P1 as defined today (`V2/V2_TODOS.md:63-66`: §2-§94 + §138) is a single
monolithic launch target. This document defines three nested, individually
shippable tiers inside P1 so that schedule, cert, or netcode pressure has a
pre-agreed answer other than "slip" or "panic-cut." Tier selection is a
formal decision with criteria (§4), recorded as an ADR per the phase-cut
convention (`V2/V2_TODOS.md:73-75`,
`V2/docs/decisions/phase-cut-mll-<tier>.md`).

Owner-roles: **EP** = Executive Producer (tier decision), **GD** = Game
Director (lovability bar), **TD** = Technical Director (netcode/cert inputs),
**PD** = Production Director (velocity inputs), **RM** = Release Manager
(cert calendar), **FIN** = Finance Director (pricing implications).

Production arithmetic referenced throughout comes from
`content-production-model.md` (same date); risk triggers from
`program-risk-register.md`.

---

## 1. Design rule for every tier

Each tier must be a **coherent fighting game a genre fan would call
complete**, not a demo:

- Every shipped ruleset meets its full per-ruleset feel spec
  (`V2/V2_features.md:431` ff.) — tiers cut *which* rulesets ship, never
  *how well* a shipped ruleset plays.
- Per-fighter content floor is never reduced: ≥ 4 specials, ≥ 2 supers, ≥ 2
  finishers, ≥ 4 alt costumes, ≥ 3 taunts, full signature library
  (`V2/V2_features.md:1023-1025`, `:1049-1066`). A smaller roster of complete
  fighters beats a larger roster of hollow ones.
- Rollback netcode quality bar is never reduced: ≤ 8 frames at ≤ 100 ms RTT
  (`V2/V2_features.md:212-214`) for every online mode that ships.
- Compliance, accessibility, parental controls, privacy (§53, §68, §80, §94)
  and launch-readiness gates (§138) ship at **every** tier — they scale with
  content volume but are never deferred.
- "Coming soon" panels are banned at every tier (`V2/V2_features.md:220-221`);
  a deferred mode simply does not appear in the front end.

## 2. The ladder

### MLL-0 — "Core Duel" (survival tier)

The smallest product that is still a lovable, ranked-viable fighting game.

**Content:**

- **24 fighters** = 2 per archetype × 12 archetypes
  (archetype list per `V2LaunchRosterData.cpp`; selection drawn from the 42
  originals at `:567-608`, partner-IP per `rights-strategy.md` §6 gate).
- **12 stages**: 6 MK-flavor (pits/hellish realms) + 6 SF-flavor
  (urban/dojo/cathedral) — exceeds the per-ruleset ≥ 5 floor of
  `V2/V2_features.md:1030-1031` for both shipped rulesets.
- **2 rulesets**: MK ruleset + SF ruleset, each at full feel spec including
  MK finishers (§16) and SF super/Drive mechanics (§17 subset).
- **Cosmetics**: ≥ 200 wardrobe items (pro-rated from the ≥ 500 floor at
  `V2/V2_features.md:1046`, scaled by roster ratio 24/60).

**Modes:** ranked 1v1, casual 1v1, private rooms + server browser (§66),
local versus + couch (§91 core), training (§60), combat trials + tutorial
curriculum (§61), arcade ladder with per-fighter arcade endings (§19 + the
ending slice of §73), tower (basic survival/time-attack ladders from §21),
replay theater + spectate (§62).

**Online envelope:** rollback **1v1 only**. No tag, no client-server modes.

**Narrative:** no cinematic Story mode; per-fighter arcade endings (60 s
cinematic + 5 panels + 30 s narration, `V2/V2_features.md:1070-1071`) carry
the lore. 24 endings ≈ 24 finished cinematic minutes — affordable
(`content-production-model.md` §4).

**Locales:** UI/subtitles in all 18 launch locales
(`V2/V2_features.md:2445`); **full VO in 4 locales** (EN, JA, FR, LATAM-ES)
instead of ≥ 8 — requires a features-promise amendment via the same ADR.

**Creator suite:** color/edit-level fighter customization only; CAF / CAW /
CAS / CAA / CAE / CAM deferred. This breaks the product-promise bullet at
`V2/V2_features.md:230-232`, which is exactly why MLL-0 requires an ADR and
a messaging reset (§5).

**TODOS sections deferred by MLL-0** (all move to post-launch updates, in
this order of return): §11 (WWE system), §12 (UFC system), §13 (SC weapons),
§14 (Def Jam), §18 (stipulation library beyond the two shipped rulesets),
§20 (Story), §22 (Krypt), §23 (Battle Hub — replaced by §48/§66 lobbies),
§24 (World Tour), §25 (Tekken Force), §26 (Devil Within), §27-§35 (Universe,
MyCAREER, MyGM, MyFACTION, MyRISE, Royal Rumble, UFC PPV, Chronicles, Def Jam
Story), §36 (Crew), §37-§40 (creator suite), §43/§44/§45 scale with shipped
content, §51/§79 (esports beyond in-game brackets), §64 (tag), §69 (bonus
modes), §74 (keeps Versus/Time-Attack/Score-Attack; defers Wager/Boss),
§76 (companion app), §81-§83 (reduced to shipped stages/fighters),
§85 (community surfaces minimum), §90 (AI director), §92 (co-op), §93
(marathon/event modes).

**TODOS sections that ship in full at MLL-0:** §1-§10, §15 (for the 12
stages), §16, §17 (shipped-ruleset supers), §19, §21 (basic), §41, §42 (12
stages), §46-§50, §53-§58, §60-§63, §65-§68, §70, §71, §72 (24 fighters),
§75, §78, §80, §84 (account progression core), §86-§89, §94, §138.

### MLL-1 — "Tag & Steel" (pressure tier)

MLL-0 plus the third lineage and team play.

- **36 fighters** (3 per archetype), **18 stages** (+6 Tekken-flavor stages
  with stage breaks/multi-floor, meeting `V2/V2_features.md:1032`).
- **3rd ruleset:** Tekken ruleset at full feel spec (§9 Tekken layer, §15
  stage breaks).
- **2v2 tag with rollback** (§64 + the 2v2 envelope of
  `V2/V2_features.md:212-215`) — only if gate G1 (§4) passed for 2v2.
- Adds: Crew basics (§36), CAF + CAM (the two highest-retention creator
  surfaces; CAW/CAS/CAA/CAE still deferred), Battle-Hub-lite social lobby
  (§23 reduced), Story **Act 1** (~45 cinematic minutes) + side stories for
  the 12 most-played fighters, Krypt (§22), full VO 6 locales.
- Defers everything else MLL-0 defers.

### MLL-2 — full P1 (plan of record)

Everything in §2-§94 + §138: ≥ 60 fighters, ≥ 30 stages, all 7 rulesets,
full mode/creator/story slate, ≥ 8 VO locales. The only note added here:
per-fighter Side Stories at 60 fighters are the single largest content line
in P1 (~720 cinematic minutes, `content-production-model.md` §4) and are the
designated **first internal cut within MLL-2** — i.e., MLL-2a ships side
stories for 16 launch fighters and back-fills seasonally — before the program
drops a whole tier.

## 3. Tier cost envelopes (from `content-production-model.md`)

| Tier | Fighters | Stages | Roster effort | Stage effort | Cinematics | Indicative total content effort |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MLL-0 | 24 | 12 | 432 pm | 90 pm | 24 finished min ≈ 24 pm (endings only) | ~546 pm ≈ 46 person-years |
| MLL-1 | 36 | 18 | 648 pm | 135 pm | ~225 min ≈ 225 pm (36 endings + Act 1 + 12 side stories) | ~1,008 pm ≈ 84 person-years |
| MLL-2 | 60 | 30 | 1,080 pm | 225 pm | 930 min ≈ 930 pm uncut / 402 min ≈ 402 pm as MLL-2a | ~1,707-2,235 pm ≈ 142-186 person-years |

(pm = person-months; systems/engineering effort excluded — it is largely
tier-invariant for whatever ships, see `market-rationale.md` §5.)

## 4. Tier-selection criteria and decision gates

Definitions: **GM** = gold-master date. A "completed fighter" = passes the
per-fighter signature checklist (`V2/V2_features.md:1064-1066`) **and** the
QA cert pass. Steady-state roster velocity at planned staffing ≈ **2.5
completed fighters/month** (planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12, derived
in `content-production-model.md` §5: 45 roster FTE ÷ 18 pm/fighter).

| Gate | When | Question | Outcome rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **G1 — netcode** | GM − 18 mo | Has rollback milestone **RB-VS1** (2-fighter vertical slice, 8-frame rollback @ 100 ms RTT — `program-risk-register.md` R-01) passed? Has the 2v2 extension passed? | RB-VS1 red → freeze roster production at 8 fighters, all tiers slip; 1v1 green but 2v2 red → tag is cut from the target tier (MLL-1 ships without tag, MLL-2 drops to MLL-1 content + extra rulesets). |
| **G2 — content velocity** | GM − 12 mo | Completed-fighter count *N*. Capacity adds ≈ 2.5/mo × 8 mo = 20 more by GM − 4 (content-complete). | *N* ≥ 40 → MLL-2 viable. 24 ≤ *N* < 40 → MLL-1 (needs 36 by GM − 4; 24 + 20 = 44 ✓). *N* < 24 → MLL-0 (needs 24; if *N* < 8, GM moves — below 8 even MLL-0 fails). |
| **G3 — cert & licensing** | GM − 9 mo | (a) Rating-board status for shipped gore content per region; (b) `V2/legal/platform-cert-bans.json` next review (currently 2026-08-11) — any Aje/Web3 surface still banned on a target platform; (c) partner-IP licenses executed per `rights-strategy.md` §6. | (a) red in a launch region → regional content adjustment, not tier change; (b) any ban active → Aje surfaces compile-time-excluded from console/Apple builds (already the plan, R-03), zero tier impact; (c) no license → fallback roster names per `rights-strategy.md` §5 — zero tier impact because tiers were defined on originals. |
| **G4 — lock** | Beta (GM − 6 mo) | Tier locked by **EP** + **GD** + **TD** sign-off, recorded in `V2/docs/decisions/phase-cut-mll-<tier>.md`. | After G4 the tier may only move **down**, never up; content finished beyond the locked tier banks for post-launch drops. |

Date pressure is handled by the gates, not ad hoc: an immovable GM date makes
G2's arithmetic the binding constraint; a movable GM date means the **EP**
may instead slip GM by up to 2 quarters once (and only once) to hold a higher
tier — a second slip forces the tier drop.

## 5. Pricing and messaging implications per tier

(Consistent with editions at `V2/V2_features.md:1503-1506` and PPP at
`:1755-1761`; details in `market-rationale.md` §6.)

- **MLL-2:** $69.99 Standard / $99.99 Deluxe / $119.99 Ultimate as specced.
- **MLL-1:** $59.99 Standard; deferred rulesets/modes announced with dated
  (not "soon") free-update roadmap; Deluxe bundles Year-1 fighters.
- **MLL-0:** $49.99 Standard (planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12:
  24-fighter/2-ruleset content parity with genre standard editions does not
  support $69.99 against SF6/T8/MK1 comparables), with a paid upgrade path
  that credits owners when MLL-1/2 content lands. Marketing repositions from
  "seven lineages, one game" to "the duel core, expanding" — **BMD** owns the
  reframe; the seven-lineage promise is only spoken once MLL-2 content is
  dated.
- All tiers: deferred-content roadmap is published with quarters, and every
  deferred TODOS section keeps its `[P1]` phase tag with an `mll-deferred`
  annotation in the ADR — deferral is a release decision, not a backlog
  deletion.