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WWE 2K Games To Make Announcement This Weekend
WWE and 2K Games will be making a special announcement this weekend during Wrestlemania 37.
WWE Games on Twitter tweeted the following, “#WWE2K fans: You’re going to want to tune in to #WrestleMania”
#WWE2K fans: You’re going to want to tune in to #WrestleMania 😉 pic.twitter.com/RnkOdgROsn
— #WWE2K24 (@WWEgames) April 8, 2021
WWE’s last console release was WWE 2K Battlegrounds last fall. The game was released following 2019’s WWE 2K20, which was scrutinized for its poor gameplay and various glitches.
WWE 2K Executive Producer Patrick Gilmore held a Reddit AMA last summer, speaking on the next installment in the 2K series
Core gameplay is one of the major investments we’re making in the next installment—one of six pillars we are focused on disproportionately in development. We are looking at much-loved previous games like No Mercy or Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain, along with top franchise installments, and more modern wrestling and fighting games to build an all-new philosophical foundation for the game. People who hope that we holistically adopt the control scheme or philosophy from one of their favorite games are likely to be disappointed; we are trying to combine the best ideas out there into a brand new wrestling experience that sets a new standard.
The game play team is focused on Accessibility, Depth and Wrestling Experience. For Accessibility, we’re obsessed with a simple, intuitive interface which has meaning and depth in a wide variety of contexts—i.e. the game is a lot smarter about what the player is trying to do given a gameplay situation (in a grapple, on the ropes, against a turnbuckle, etc.), with consistent inputs regardless of situation. New players should be able to accidentally pull off awesome moves just by playing with and experimenting with controls.
For Depth, we’re looking a lot at ring position, deeper combos and “working” moves, limb damage, technical capabilities, match momentum and unlocks, and rock-paper-scissors (RPS) strategies by archetype and player style. Depth doesn’t come from the manual skill of pressing the proper buttons but from the psychological game of anticipating and countering your opponent’s strategy, and this needs to be built in from the very foundation, so expect a significant evolution in gameplay with the next installment.
The last aspect of great gameplay is capturing the essence of professional wrestling, which has dimensions of drama, changing context, massive roster, backstage action, weapons and props, audience participation and spectacle. One of the huge challenges of the franchise is finding ways for players to feel in control of the vast number of potential outcomes in a given match. While we take lessons from fighting games, action RPG’s and other genres, this aspect helps us stay focused on delivering a through-and-through wrestling game. While we’re determined to deliver the spectacle and specific moments of a genuine match, I can say we’re trying to get away form UI popups or mini games to represent things like pins or reversals, and instead move those concepts into more fully-realized mechanics which feel like extensions of the main experience.
The six core areas of focus:
- Core Gameplay: making the superstar vs. superstar gameplay the best it’s ever been.
- Emergence: leveraging physics and more generic object/environment systems to enable spectacular gameplay that players feel in control of
- WWEX (WWE Experience): delivering an end-to-end true WWE experience in all aspects of the game, from UI and wrapper, to superstars, match types and story modes.
- Online: improving all aspects of the online experience.
- Character: make the best-looking superstars of all time.
- Create: Upgrade the creation suite, and make our community creation tools feel like magic to use.
“Create” is one of the six primary areas of focus for the next game. We are looking at all modes in the Create suite, streamlining interfaces and improving the experience for power users. We’re also upgrading base models and trying to bring more personality and flow to the creation process. The Create team’s vision is “tools that feel like magic to use.” They want everyone to be able to create something that looks amazing to incorporate that creation into the game, and to share it with the world.
Across that entire lifecycle of creation, we have improvements planned. As some of you know, we’ve reached out to power creators in the community to get their recommendations on how to take Universe to the next level. I’m super excited to shape Universe through advice directly from some of our most passionate and active creators.
GM Mode is one of the most requested features we get. I can say that my message to the team was, “We’re not just going to trot out a mode from 2008 without bringing something new.” Top minds are thinking about that right now. Top. Minds.
Ahead of this year’s Royal Rumble this past January, WWE talent recorded voiceovers and were scanned for the next installment of the franchise.