2K Games have announced WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a far more exaggerated style of wrestling game than their usual realistic endeavors.
In a blog post on the WWE 2K20 website, the game was revealed to be developed by Saber Interactive (NBA 2K Playgrounds). It “will feature arcade-style action and over-the-top Superstar designs, environments and moves. We’re focusing on social pick-up-and-play fun, but with plenty of depth for those who want to get way into it.”
You can find the teaser trailer below.
The game’s announcement had been rumored for a while. We previously reported how WWE 2K20 suffered a litany of glitches and bugs on launch. The situation has grown so bad, it seems Sony were offering refunds of the game on PlayStation 4.
It is worth noting while WWE 2K games used to be developed by Yukes. 2K Games ended their partnership in August 2019.
WWE 2K20 was instead developed by Visual Concepts, who also developed NBA 2K20, which has also been having similar outcry over unskippable adverts, and lootbox mechanics heavily focused on gambling style marketing (in a game rated E for Everyone by the ESRB, and PEGI 3 in Europe).
A former WWE game writer, Justin Leeper, then claimed that WWE 2K21 had been cancelled before its announcement. In summation, Leeper claims from “reliable sources” that the game was cancelled. He also cited the lack of any announcement of the game at this year’s WWE Wrestlemania event. It was later confirmed to be cancelled in an investor call.
The blog post also addressed this.
“Next, we want to address WWE 2K20. We’ve heard and appreciate your feedback, and continue to listen to you closely. Since launch, we’ve released five title updates, addressing hundreds of reported concerns, and have released four WWE 2K20 Originals DLC expansions to build on and improve the experience. We’ve also heard your requests to keep the WWE 2K19 servers running; they will remain active for the time being.
All of that being said, we hear you and we know you want more from the franchise, so here’s what we’re going to do: we are applying what we’ve learned to the next WWE 2K simulation game with a renewed focus on quality and fun. As part of that commitment, we are extending the production timeline and will not be releasing a WWE 2K simulation game in 2020 (T2 fiscal year 2021). We want to ensure the development team at Visual Concepts can create a great game that will entertain grizzled WWE 2K veterans, as well as newcomers who want to climb through the ropes and step into the ring for the very first time.
We’ve recruited Patrick Gilmore to serve as our new Executive Producer and lead these efforts at Visual Concepts. Patrick has over 25 years of experience in video games, reaching all the way back to Disney’s Aladdin on Sega Genesis, and including franchises like Killer Instinct, Medal of Honor, and, most recently, Amazon’s New World. He will be overseeing WWE 2K development, and you’ll be hearing more from him and the team in the months to come.
We hope you find this news as exciting as we do. We are confident it will lead to better games in the future.”
WWE 2K Battlegrounds launches Fall 2020.
