WWE will be making a wrestling RPG, announces server closures for WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20
It looks like WWE is going to be announcing a new wrestling RPG soon. On a Q1 2022 earnings call, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon discussed the importance of video games to the WWE brand and quietly dropped a reference to the upcoming RPG. "We continue to see strength in the performance of our mobile games, with 2K and Scopely’s Supercard and Champions, and recently signed a new deal in the role-playing game space that will be announced soon." She also claims that 80% of WWE fans self-identify as gamers, meaning video games will likely continue to be an important part of WWE's business for a long time.
In the realm of traditional wrestling video games, McMahon also claimed that the latest release in the WWE 2K franchise, WWE 2K22, was "a commercial and critical success, with the highest Metacritic scores on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms, in franchise history, with over 5.6 million hours viewed on Twitch to date.” (Currently, WWE 2K22's Metacritic score range between 72 for the PC version and 78 for the Xbox Series X|S version.) This comes after a developer change and a break from the franchise, as Japanese developer Yuke's, who had developed 18 years worth of WWE 2K games, left the franchise after WWE 2K19. A new developer, Visual Concepts, took over for WWE 2K20, which was reviled upon release and led to a two-year break for the franchise. It was also announced today that these two titles, WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20, will have their servers shut down on June 30, 2022.
Meanwhile, original WWE 2K developer Yuke's will be developing a game for WWE rival AEW, titled AEW Fight Forever.
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